Never About Winning
by Again With This
Summary: On what must be chance, Alexa awakens dormant power in Japan. A lifestyle change and college dropout later, she is assigned a partner in the form of grumpy, snarky Hiei. When an archaic organization bent on human-demon segregation makes itself known, Alexa and her friends find themselves fighting a deeper terror than previously imagined. There's more to life than winning. Hiei/OC
1. Googled to a New Place

**Hello all to the first chapter of my new story! I am Again With This, formerly Airheadninja, and I have been working on this bad boy for a few months now and finally got the courage to post.**

**Quick note: Later in this chapter there is some implied Japanese, which is written in italics. I only know formal Japanese, so it made no sense for me to write a verbal exchange that would be happening in super informal language.**

**Without further ado, please enjoy Never About Winning.**

* * *

**-Googled to a New Place-**

"Then I got Alexa to yell at Siri, and Siri yelled back!"

The group of teenagers laugh as their friend finishes the punchline to their recent funny Tumblr post on their phone. None, fortunately, take notice of the young woman who walks past them. The woman mutters her disdain for teenagers and for the subject of that particular post but continues to make her way toward her destination. She peeks at her phone for confirmation that Google is keeping her on the right track, dodging other pedestrians on the sidewalk and glancing around for street names.

It isn't her first time walking around the city, but she isn't accustomed to it. She is small and alone, though with her disheveled appearance and the midday sun, she manages to escape notice from anyone who would pose a threat. Soon, she passes into the Chinatown portion of the city. Her glances down to her phone and up at street names increase as she continues along, before finally turning down one small alley and reaching her destination.

With a big gulp of air, the woman closes Google Maps and locks her phone, shoving it in her back pocket. Before her is a sliding door of Japanese fashion, on which is printed "**SETH MERIDIAN**, **REIKI MASTER**." Taking another deep breath to steady herself and maintain control, she raises a shaky fist to knock. The door clatters, making her wince at the jarring, ungraceful sound that echoes in the alleyway. Her breathing shallows more and her mind whirls as footsteps approach from behind the doors. They slide open to reveal a young man of Asian descent, whose eyes hold immediate confusion for her.

"Is Mr. Meridian here? I called and set up an appointment…" the young woman trails off, a slight strain in her voice from some unseen conflict inside her. The young man straightens in recognition.

"Oh yeah, sure, you're just half an hour early. Seth-sensei is here, come on in. He probably already sensed you, just make sure you take your shoes off, he's a stickler on that."

The young woman enters and does as bid, sliding off her white Toms and following the young man across the wooden flooring to a room closed by more traditional sliding doors, in which the flooring is tatami. She is guided to a cushion at a low table and instructed to wait. The young man pauses briefly to introduce himself as Henry, to which the young woman merely nods. She doesn't disclose her name or speak at risk of relinquishing what delicate control she has maintained for nearly three hours.

Almost immediately after Henry's departure, another man slides into the room, dark-skinned with full lips set in a grim frown, his eyes betraying no emotion other than calm. He clears the length of the room to sit across from the woman in a few steps, his motion fluid and practiced, and the young woman sits up slightly when he holds his hand out despite his neutral demeanor.

"You must be Alexa. I am Seth Meridian. I can feel how stressed you are, and your case seems quite perplexing. Please tell me when this started," he begins, voice deep and as passive as the rest of him.

The young woman, Alexa, shifts her eyes nervously and bites her lip. She knows that giving up complete control won't hurt anyone, but whatever it is that is happening is so strange that she can't imagine anyone taking it well. Seth notices her hesitation and finally eases his disposition to offer a smile.

"Do not worry about scaring me. I have seen much, much worse in my time."

This comfort allows Alexa to sigh, with which comes a faint tune and to Seth's surprise, a surge of her energy.

"I'm sorry I didn't talk sooner. I haven't held it in for this long before and I just managed to learn how to control the volume on it. I'm not sure how I convinced everyone that the music wasn't coming from me but I don't want to let it go on until someone finds out. I just started emanating music a couple weeks ago. Whatever song is in my head just comes out. It's never my thoughts or anything, just music. I have no idea," Alexa explains, the music filtering through the air as if they sat in a café discussing mediocre politics over coffee. Her eyes twitch slightly when she realizes that the song is from Spongebob.

"I can feel that your spirit energy is linked to the music, and it's more energy than a normal person usually has. Have you ever had any experience with the supernatural?"

"…Like ghosts?"

"Yes."

Alexa eases her sitting position to hunch down in thought.

"Yeah, I guess so. Not a lot, just like weird feelings and I heard footsteps and whispers while playing in the really old practice hall. I'm a music major at a university in the next state over. I always just thought my mind was playing tricks on me and I was paranoid," Alexa describes, anxiety making her eyes watery. Although he doesn't show it, Seth notes with amusement that the song she begins playing is the Ghostbusters Theme.

"Then something dire or strange awakened this… ability, that is causing your energy to manifest in a certain way to protect you. What was happening when it began?" Seth prods, successfully distracting Alexa from swirling completely into despair.

"I was in Japan visiting a friend. She's an English teacher there and we had planned it for months. Nothing really bad happened, like we weren't mugged or anything. I got bad feelings sometimes, and then on my last day there the music started up and all the bad feelings became more frequent, but I was a bit distracted by the music. Also, there were a ton of bugs in the city that day, but we were traveling up to the airport and they went away the farther we got, and like I said I was trying to cover my music issue," she finishes, her eyes wandering down to her hands that are wringing around each other in her lap. The music changes to 'Carry On My Wayward Son,' as Alexa continues to ponder any past experience with the supernatural.

Seth let his neutral, completely vague demeanor sweep over him once again so she couldn't read his immense intrigue. His mind wanders to an old veteran Reiki master in Japan, the very best in the world, one with whom he had studied for a few years when he was younger. He hadn't ventured over to become her true heir and apprentice a couple of years before due to his contentment with his own mastery of reiki technique. Alexa's story lines up with his own gut feelings at the time, and the rumors of a door to the demon world being opened in a space relative to Japan. Although Seth knows that he can't abolish the sudden power Alexa holds, he knows that the veteran psychic in Japan would be able to help develop and control the energy more than he can. While Seth is considered a master, he is aware of his limits. His own form of reiki technique focuses more on internal meditation and use of his energy to expand the limits of the mind, not for powers that Alexa shows an affinity for.

"Alexa, I have to admit, there is very little I can do for you that you haven't already done for yourself. You were wise to think of coming to me, but unless you want to become the human equivalent of your Google app, I cannot fully help you. However, I can point you in the direction that you need to go. Are you able to return to Japan?"

* * *

After a month of begging her parents for financial help and contacting her friend in Japan, Alexa once again finds herself in Mushiyori City, Japan. Like a true guardian angel, her English teacher friend lied through her teeth to Alexa's parents saying that she needed comforting after a death in the family and had the inability to get time off and afford a ticket to attend the funeral. In return, Alexa explained her dire situation to her friend, who needed no more convincing once Alexa gave a demonstration.

Alexa took a couple of days to sleep off the travel exhaustion and jet lag, feeling comfortable enough to do so as the city felt at peace compared to when she had been there last. On her third day, she resigns herself to finally getting up and looking around the city for anything that might point her in the direction of the psychic that Seth-sensei had mentioned to her. While her friend would normally help her traverse the city, Alexa must tackle her problem on her own. Her friend is busy with work, having already taken her vacation time during the summer break. Alexa herself is missing school, having frantically called all her professors and counselors to obtain a leave of absence for personal health that semester. It would put her behind and she still has to pay half of tuition, but Alexa has no other choice.

Her control over her energy manifestation is much better than it had been, and less stressful on her mind. Although in times of major emotion or relaxation it slips away, Seth-sensei had equated it to the focus of driving on a busy highway. The visualization gave her a better idea of how taxing the control would be, in any case.

Alexa has the disadvantage of only an elementary grasp of Japanese and can neither read nor speak very well. The one scrap of advice that drives her forward is that she knows the name of the reiki master she is searching for, and she also knows that for simple things, she can say her English words with a Japanese inflection and people will usually understand. Unfortunately for Alexa, she is horrible at speaking with a Japanese inflection, having taken not Japanese, not Spanish (which has similar inflection), but Russian in high school. Even in that language she'd hardly learned anything.

As she starts out on the street outside her friend's apartment building, she is filled with a determination to find information on where to find the reiki master Genkai. Seth-sensei sent her with an address, but both Alexa's friend and Google have no idea where it is. Given that information, she and her friend guessed that it must be in the extreme backwoods. After stopping for a Starbucks (where Japanese inflection won her a tall black coffee), Alexa manages to stroll along looking for anything and daring to let her senses flow with her energy around her so that she might feel something different. The music may play around her slightly, but if she only relents with the music at a soft volume, all passerby will be none the wiser.

Throughout the hours, she keeps walking around, following advice from Seth-sensei and allowing her sixth sense to guide her. While she exhibited extreme doubt that she had any such thing worthy of being counted on, Seth-sensei seemed sure that it would help. Eventually, though, after making no progress whatsoever, getting turned around, and absolutely losing herself on the streets, she lets her tiring feet lead her to a park. As she sinks herself down on a bench with shady red-tinged branches overhead, she loses more control of her energy and the music ups in volume for the subsequent energy flare. A frustrated sob escapes with a hiccup from her mouth.

"I have no idea where I am or how to get back, Kelly won't be out of school for a few hours yet, and I haven't found anything. What the hell am I doing here?" she cries weakly to herself, putting her hands over her face to keep other people walking by from judging her. It doesn't matter, as the song in her mind that is playing is at a greatly audible level, thus drawing mutters and stares anyway. Strangely, her energy music fulfills its protective purpose as Alexa doesn't manage to notice when all she can hear is "All By Myself" echoing in her ears. She also fails to notice a black clad stranger drop down from the tree behind her, who stands merely taking in the pathetic woman hiccupping in despair on the bench. Although her energy surges around her, the man is perfectly able to break through the meager form of barrier around her mind and sees that she is searching for someone he knows.

This man normally wouldn't give an iota of a care about anyone else, much less an annoying human woman, but his intrigue is also piqued. He's never experienced powers quite like hers, and though clumsy and raw right now, her energy could be formed into something formidable. Much like two others he found himself to be in league with. More than that, his nap has been interrupted by the combination of the music and the flare of her energy. In the span of time that he stands thinking about his next action, the music changes to a different song, one that was far more depressing and angsty than the one before. Hearing the lyrics spurs the man into talking.

"You're looking for Genkai. Follow me. And stop crying, it's pathetic."

Alexa shrieks in surprise, making the music stutter and her energy gather around her closely. She stands to take in the man, who waits with withering patience as she studies in mistrust.

"How? Who are you?"

The amount of suspicion in her voice bolsters it to come out almost bold. The man doesn't twitch.

"It doesn't matter. Do you want help or not?" His question stands more as a statement, but to his chagrin Alexa doesn't give in.

"Just because you speak English doesn't mean I trust –wait– how did you even know I'm looking for Genkai? There are too many questions for me to trust you," she responds, a hint of venom in her words that make the man's eyes narrow in what he likes to think of as his trademark glare. Alexa's frown only deepens, her eyes also narrowing. The music appears again, this time her energy taking a more belligerent feeling. Something about 'Shellshock' permeates the air between them.

"_Whoa is that Hiei talking to a girl? First time I've ever seen that_."

The tension breaks on the strange man's part, though Alexa still bristles as two boys, one tall in blue, the other shorter in green, join the scene. Even worse, she can't understand anything they are saying, as the stranger in black reverts to speaking Japanese to the newcomers.

"_Hn. Do you have anything useful to say or will you always continue to bother me?" _

"_What?! We were just passing by you shrimp." _The one in blue yells, though he is interrupted by his shorter friend.

"_For real though Hiei, what're you doing?" _

"_This woman is looking for Genkai. Now if you don't mind, I'm done being charitable towards idiotic humans."_

Alexa blinks and gasps as in that tiny space of time, the strange man in black has disappeared after the short exchange. Her astonishment is immediately forgotten, for her eyes are back on the two boys, who look almost nervous as they mutter to each other.

"_Kuwabara you've gotten better at school you talk with her."_

"_Even though that's true do you really think I know enough English to talk to a gaijin like this?"_

"_C'mon, soak it up! For once you're better than me at something."_

"_Shut up Urameshi. Fine."_

Kuwabara, the tall, orange haired boy in blue walks forward. He stops short seeing, or rather sensing, that Alexa's energy is absolutely ballistic at this point. He glances back at Urameshi, who is also now sensing Alexa's energy, and nods with a serious expression.

"Hello. My name is Kazuma."

Alexa recognizes the effort the boy is putting into speaking English, obviously a phrase he had learned from repetition in school.

"My name is Alexa."

After that, silence. Neither knew what else to say in either language. Urameshi falls to the ground in exasperation.

"_There's gotta be a way over this dumb language barrier!" _he shouts, incredulous and cursing Hiei for leaving so quickly.

Alexa takes in the two boys and their interactions and decides that if either wanted to hurt her, they would make it obvious at this point. She thinks about the language barrier herself, until a notification sounds from her phone.

"Oh! Hey wait a second!" she exclaims, digging her phone from her back pocket and unlocking it hurriedly. The two boys silence themselves and watch her in interest as she begins moving her thumbs in a typing motion. Moments later, Google's audio translator speaks: _"A reiki master in America sent me back to Japan to find Genkai. Can you help me?" _

And with that start, the three become acquainted, even with some translation errors along the way (although this leads them to enjoy each other's company even more). By a stroke of luck, Alexa had bumped into a friend of theirs named Hiei, and by extension met them. Yusuke turns out to be Genkai's successor and former student, though he confirms he can't really help her with her problem more than the master in America. Yusuke begrudgingly offers to take Alexa all the way out to her temple in the mountains the next day. Kuwabara has school to think about.

After dropping Alexa safely off in the general area of the apartment building she is staying in, the two message her on the LINE app (no international phone fees that way) to ensure they can further communicate. Although the language barrier still exists, Alexa can tell that her new friends are going to really help her out.

"God I really need to just sit. I've been in marching band for how many years and I'm still out of shape," Alexa mutters under her breath, sitting back on Kelly's couch with her phone open on her Facebook messenger.

"'Hey mom, just wanted to let you know I'm still safe and Kelly is doing okay, she just really needed the support. She isn't off work yet but we're gonna go out to a karaoke bar or something to get her mind off of things. Love you, tell dad hi.'" She whispers as she types, a frequent habit of hers to talk to herself to always fill the silence. Back when she had silence to fill, anyway.

"This music crap is annoying." Alexa sighs tiredly, knowing that a nap would be nice. When the music first happened, she could hardly sleep not only because of the fear that someone would think she was a mutant, but because the music in her head that filtered out into the air from her energy never stops. The strain to control the volume combined with that factor made it difficult to get to sleep. Nevertheless, Alexa locks her phone and lays on the couch (her temporary bed) to get some napping in before Kelly gets home.

The thought of getting help, and a gentle song on the promise of tomorrow, ease her into a peaceful slumber.

Tomorrow, tomorrow…

* * *

**And here we are! Some songs Alexa plays will be explicitly said, and some will be implied, but I won't include any lyric stanzas or tell anybody to listen to the songs. **

**Any constructive criticism is welcome, and though I've gone through and edited and redrafted several times, I'm not perfect and would certainly enjoy any feedback you could provide! I always respond to reviews.**

**I'll post in another couple of weeks, given no major catastrophe befalls me.**

**Til next time,**

**-A**


	2. When You Call Someone a Demon

**Hello readers, and welcome to the second chapter of Never About Winning! Thank you to those who are returning, or are giving this a chance even with only two chapters posted. **

**I should also mention (if it's not obvious already) that I've shifted the timeline into modern years, so the YYH plotline of this story is no longer set in the nineties.**

**Italics are still used for implied Japanese. **

**Alexa has returned to Japan! Without further ado, enjoy.**

* * *

**-When You Call Someone a Demon (and are Unknowingly Correct)-**

"Just be careful, okay? Just because this is a different culture doesn't mean there aren't a lotta wackjobs out there," Kelly finishes her reprimand, simultaneously pulling her brush through her hair while getting ready for work. Alexa stops brushing her teeth with her brush in her mouth to give Kelly affirmative finger guns, to which she rolls her eyes. Alexa spits and rinses her mouth, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata wafting through the bathroom for the fifth time that morning due to a funny video montage Alexa watched online.

"I know that, but I don't think these guys are fooling around. I wonder about that first dude I met though. I don't understand how he knew I was looking for this Genkai lady in the first place. He was bilingual," Alexa replies, exiting the bathroom before Kelly and giving a huge yawn while tying up her hair in a high ponytail.

"You already told me all of this. He must've been hella cute if you're still talking about him," Kelly chides, coming up behind Alexa and bumping hips with her in teasing.

"Shut up. He was wearing clothes that didn't show his figure, he could've been a super skinny twig man or really hairy–"

"–Or," Kelly interjects with a wild grin, "he could've been hiding a huge d–"

"–I'm not going to let you finish that sentence you fuckin' weirdo." Alexa smacks her friend on the arm, both laughing despite themselves. They both head to the door of the apartment to pull on their shoes, continuing their conversation.

"I mean, it might've been a trick of the light, but I swear his eyes were red. Also, he just Houdini'd away, I'd hardly blinked and he was gone," Alexa describes, although it's not the first time Kelly's heard it.

"Yeah, again you said that before. Maybe he's a wizard and apparated."

"Haha, very funny. Almost got my Gryffindor heart stirring, even," Alexa says sarcastically, tightening the laces on her light pink Converse shoes. Heaving up her mid-sized duffle bag that she packed earlier that morning, she turns to Kelly as they both straighten, ready for their day.

"Thanks for everything, Kelly. You've been a total godsend with all of this and I promise I'll message you when I get to this psychic's place."

Kelly's only response is to grab Alexa in a tight hug around her head, their normal stupid good-bye hug because of their height difference.

"Gack, quit choking me with your chest, woman! I don't like you like that!" comes Alexa's normal response to the hug, and both laugh at their inside joke and make their way out the door, out the building, and out to new adventure.

Alexa checks her phone for a message from Yusuke, after bidding Kelly farewell and heading to the seven-eleven nearest the apartment building and grabbing a drink and an onigiri for breakfast. To her relief, Yusuke did make contact and the message translated to _"meet you in ten minutes where I dropped you off yesterday."_

Alexa fidgets on a bench and waits for the arrival of the teenage boy. Checking her phone every minute, she eventually gets more anxious as the ten-minute ETA passes. She translates and sends a message in Japanese to Yusuke asking if he is okay but gets no response. Her anxiety manifests in her volume control of her music, allowing it to get fractionally louder as more time passes. When Alexa realizes her control is slipping by hearing the Super Mario Sixty-Four Bob-omb Battlefield Theme in her ears, she frantically focuses her energy once more to turn down the music. She keeps her eyes down on her phone, turning it over and over in her hands before she hears Yusuke's voice chattering to her right. Standing and turning to greet him, her smile stops short when she sees who he's talking at.

"Oh god, it's him."

Yusuke notices her and throws up a hand in greeting. Alexa understands his simple "Ohayo" that comes after, but his shorter friend utters nothing and only stares ahead. Alexa decides with a huff that if he isn't going to acknowledge her after yesterday, then she would return the favor. Alexa manages to recall his name, as Yusuke addresses him by it after nudging his shoulder and talking more in Japanese. Yusuke's cheeky grin despite the early morning makes Alexa feel uneasy and Hiei snaps back at Yusuke in the same clipped tone he had used with her. Finally, he turns his gaze to meet hers, once again narrowed in a glare.

"Yusuke dragged me here to play translator due to the incompetence between you both. I suggest you keep your correspondence short as I have very little patience for this nonsense," Hiei snarls at her, causing her energy to go on the offensive instinctively, the music once again rising in volume. Alexa herself doesn't notice, mostly because she's trying to gear her mind towards insults while only remembering Kelly's inappropriate comment earlier. This comment is sticking even more like a barb now that Alexa comes to terms with the fact that Hiei has a handsome face despite his miffed expression. While his figure is still left to mystery, Alexa can only assume that the rest of him can't be really all that bad.

"Well don't get mad at me, it's not like I suggested it. We were getting along just fine with Google translate, except for when it was too literal once and I accidentally called Kuwabara a prostitute," she squeaks in indignant anger, although Hiei's glare lessens at her words for reasons Alexa can only guess at. She decides to take it as a good sign but turns a disappointed frown to Yusuke, who only watches on with curiosity at what is being said. After saying something in Japanese to Hiei, he once again snaps back in anger over something that makes Yusuke snicker.

"What is it?" Alexa asks, not liking that there's some other conversation topic going on that definitely involves her.

"It's nothing. Just his normal idiocy. Let's go, we're taking a train and I don't want to spend more time in your presence than I have to." At that, Hiei turns and begins to stalk off in a certain direction, at which Yusuke shrugs and begins to follow. Alexa takes her cue and hurries forward to draw even with the teenager, who is dressed today in jeans and a plain white tee. She fumes at the amount of disrespect Hiei has slung at her and can't help but wonder how Yusuke can feel so at ease with the man.

"There must be some redeeming qualities he's hiding really well cuz I can't imagine someone like that ever having friends," Alexa thinks to herself, and the trio walks in silence–except for Bob-omb Battlefield– to the train station. Hiei eventually helps her buy the train ticket and, soon enough, the three are on the train with Alexa sitting across from Hiei in the window seat. Yusuke sits in the aisle seat next to Hiei and shortly decides that their stable relative silence needs to end.

"_Hiei, could you ask her to turn up her music a little? I dunno what the song is but it's catchy," _he requests amiably, but Hiei ignores his request and instead finds himself listening to the quiet music wafting around with Alexa's more relaxed energy. It's a song in English, something about being an American idiot. Hiei visibly rolls his eyes and chooses not to listen more. Yusuke takes on what almost looks like a pout and nudges Hiei with his elbow, causing the man to growl in annoyance. Alexa turns her face from the window at the sound, once again studying the interaction between Yusuke and Hiei with suspicion.

"What did he ask you Hiei? I have a feeling he won't leave you alone until you tell me," Alexa says, noticing the mischievous smile on Yusuke's face that reaches his eyes. Hiei shifts attention out the window with a grunt and crosses his arms.

"Very observant, woman–"

"–Look, I have a name and I know you've heard what it is. I'm Alexa. Use it."

Hiei growls once more at her interjection but continues in a scathing tone.

"He wants you to turn your music up."

Alexa looks between the two, Yusuke expectant and Hiei dismissive.

"Such a big deal over such a tiny request. You must be a real demon when you're actually mad at something."

The sarcastic remark draws out an expression from Hiei that confuses Alexa beyond words. With his lips turning up in a smirk and face turning to look at her outright, his next words cause her to raise her eyebrows in surprise.

"You have no idea, **Alexa.**"

Afterwards, while inching the volume up on her music a tiny bit for Yusuke, Alexa sends off a message for Kelly: "That one dude came along with Yusuke and I think he thinks I'm really stupid."

... ... ...

A few hours and a trudge through the woods later, the three stand at the entrance to a large temple plaza that is, as described, completely secluded in the forest and sitting within a mountain range.

"No wonder Google had no idea where this is," Alexa mumbles, although she catches Hiei's glance toward her right after. The moment passes before Alexa can address it.

"_Yoooooo grandmaaaa! I know you're here you hag!"_

Seemingly out of nowhere, Hiei grabs Alexa's forearm and drags her roughly away from Yusuke.

"Hey what the hell?!" she yells, the pop song currently radiating through her energy roaring up into her ears.

"Hn. Saving your skin. You're welcome."

Hiei lets her go and points back to Yusuke and Alexa follows only to feel all air drain from her lungs slowly at the sight that greets her.

A tiny old woman is stooping over a now laid out Yusuke to grab up a heavy-looking book, which she dusts off and tucks under her arm. The woman's eyes gaze unimpressed at the teenager rubbing at his injured head on the ground grouchily. Yusuke and the old woman continue to bicker at each other while Alexa turns to Hiei.

"Whoa. I guess I should thank you," she says meekly. Hiei's eyes linger on hers a few moments before he grunts and looks back at the scene Yusuke is making. Alexa shrugs and pays more attention to the scene as well. Just in time too, as the old woman is staring at her now. Alexa immediately stands at attention.

"Meridian sent you?" the woman asks roughly, her English accented. Alexa nods.

"I'm Alexa."

The lame introduction is met with silence as the woman walks closer to inspect the young girl, taking in her defensive, anxious energy and the subsequent music lolling through the air. Yusuke ventures a question, but the woman waves him off with a shush. Hiei watches silently, succeeding at appearing bored.

"He was right to send you here. Your training will need to begin immediately, but there are some things that I will need to explain to you first. Come inside."

The old woman's orders do not fall on deaf ears, and Alexa follows her with fluttery feelings in her stomach and her music swelling slightly in response. Noticing that Hiei isn't walking, Alexa turns to ask if he's coming, only to see that he has already left.

"Huh. Why do I have the feeling that's going to be a really common theme with him?"

...

***A YEAR AND A HALF LATER***

...

"I'm recommending you for a specialized team that will travel between Demon World and Human World on behalf of the leaders of both."

Alexa let her mouth hang open slightly in astonishment, at which Genkai smiles. Of the many students the old psychic got to teach, Alexa achieved her spot of being the most respectful of them.

"Thanks very much, but why? I mean, obviously I need to do something with everything you've taught me but I'm not sure how I'll explain it to my parents."

"Don't get all hepped up and anxious, now, you'll be working with some familiar faces. You gave up your former life to continue training and while no one ever expected that dimwit Yusuke to achieve a power shift in Demon World, that's exactly what he did. The barrier is down, Demon World is now a very real entity in Human World, and the balance shift is going to be shaky as they feel each other out. Kurama and Kuwabara are thoroughly rooted with lives in Human World as you know, and Yusuke said something about a ramen shop last I heard, as he hasn't been up to visit since he came back. To put it bluntly, you're one of the only humans in the world who can take this job. The other three will pitch in when they can, but they've earned the right to living life the way they want to. That clear things up?" Genkai explains, watching as Alexa let the information wash over her and the thoughtful expression that replaces her astonishment.

"So basically, you're saying I'm perfect for the job because I have no life?"

Genkai smirks.

"Pretty much, kiddo. Sad but true. If you need any more convincing, you'll be getting paid by Koenma, and most likely commission pay from Enki and the UN council formed to tackle negotiations with Demon World. You'll most likely be loaded within a couple years," she mentions, causing Alexa to give an assenting nod. Her expression turns sheepish as Genkai chuckles.

"My parents have been saddled with paying my student loans back, it'd be kinda nice if I could pay them off myself and pay my parents back for everything."

"Right. Well, that leads me to the last thing I need to tell you. Alexa, you need to listen carefully to what I'm about to say."

Alexa straightens, letting her wonder show on her face. Genkai can't help but find certain parallels between her and Yusuke and inwardly scoffs once again at her soft spot for big-hearted fools.

"I'm not going to be living for very much longer. A few years ago, I was brought back to life but that didn't extend my natural lifespan. Now that you and Yusuke are on your proper paths, I don't have any regrets about dying. I called up a bloodsucking attorney to sort out my will a few months ago, and I'm leaving all my land to you and the others. I don't want you talking about it until it's time, but I felt it fair to warn you, as you and Puu are now the only two who will be residing here after I'm gone."

After more silence, Alexa let slip a phrase of a sad song that betrays her state of mind. It immediately goes away before the lyric can finish.

"I mean, I understand that this is how life goes, but I don't think I'll make enough money to pay taxes on this place. Also, you've known everyone else for a lot longer, and Yusuke is your successor! They should be more in charge of this stuff than me," she argues, her face showing a hint of red at her embarrassing release on her music.

"Yusuke may be my successor, but that boy is too important to Demon World politics and has promises to keep to his girlfriend. This land wasn't originally mine, and you'll notice that there aren't any old ruins anywhere on the property. Even humans with low sixth senses can feel that this land isn't meant for human development, and thus it's more like a national park: no taxes. It is one of the few places where low level demons have been able to live without being bothered in this world. I want you to keep it that way, and to also use it as a safe place for demons to introduce themselves to the Human World. With the team you'll be working with, I'm sure that won't be much of a problem. Yukina stayed here and then moved on. There will be others who follow her, but they need a waypoint first, and someone who understands them. I'm leaving it to you and the others to do so," Genkai answers. Alexa sits back and slouches from across the low table, sadly staring at her hands that rest in her lap.

"Well okay. This isn't the sort of depressing talk I was thinking we would have today. So wait, does the team I'm working with include my absolute bros?"

"Yes, Alexa. Those six are on that team."

At Genkai's confirmation Alexa grins and pumps a right fist in the air. Having trained with them rigorously while they were residing on the temple grounds, Alexa came to be great friends with six demons that previously fought with Yusuke and his team. Alexa also trained, occasionally, with Kuwabara and Kurama, when they could spare a moment to do so. Although the news of Genkai predicting her imminent passing still looms over her, she can't help but feel excited over the prospect of such a momentous job with a bunch of her training buddies.

"Thank you for your kindness for over the past year. I'll make sure that I do you proud, Master Genkai," Alexa says, bowing her head slightly over the table they sit at.

"Oh shut up. It's time for your run anyway. Chop chop, missy."

Alexa shoots up at her words and jogs out the door and off for her warm-up run before regular workout time, a big goofy grin on her face all the while. Genkai stays where she is and sighs.

"Had to take one last kid under your wing, you big sap."

...

**-#DemonWorld2kXX-**

...

For the first time in months, Hiei is absolutely livid. While he peacefully resigned to border patrol after his loss in the tournament, he never could have dreamed that all this change would be happening so fast. Without hesitation, he storms into a room he once frequented until two weeks before.

"Did you have anything to do with this?!"

The occupant of the room crosses her arms, a chilling glare settling on her face as Hiei approaches where she sits lounging.

"What are you talking about?" she asks flatly, already knowing full well what has the man in a rage. Hiei sneers.

"So you did. That desperate to have me out of your sight? If it's true you should just kill me."

"I had nothing to do with you being transferred to this team Enki and Spirit World put together. Besides, I thought we parted on amiable means; you're just looking for an excuse to fight with me now," the woman scoffs, shifting her legs to cross her right over her left. Hiei's anger fades to a simmer, recognizing the woman's honesty in her voice.

"Hn. Then I suppose this is good-bye for now."

Hiei leaves the chamber just as abruptly as he entered, though much more quietly. As the door clicks shut, the woman relaxes and huffs in laughter.

"His foolishness will never stop being endearing."

* * *

**Big shift, big happenings, big timeshift! **

**Is it lazy writing? Some might think so, but perhaps mine own mind hath deeper meanings in doing it...**

**To those who follow/favorite/review, I am eternally grateful. To those who are just readin', I love you guys too. **

**Next chapter shall be in a couple weeks.**

**Til next time,**

**-A**


	3. Mind Readers are Hokey

**Hello and welcome back! Three chapters in. **

**PLEASE NOTE! No more italics for implied Japanese speaking! Now they're just speaking Japanese on the regular. **

**With that said, enjoy!**

* * *

**-Mind Readers are Hokey-**

Before Hiei could report in to the newly built capitol castle that houses the new central government, he receives a message by courier with an order from the king. It concerns returning to Human World to aid Koenma. While Hiei's aware of Koenma's takeover of Spirit World due to a conspiracy the prince uncovered, he still can't believe his further stroke of horrible luck at this development. Not only has he been reassigned to join a specialized team to go between Human and Demon World, the courier further relates that the request for his help now comes from Yusuke. The ex-spirit detective called Enki to make sure Hiei couldn't refuse to go to Human World and join his old team to save Spirit World from a terrorist takeover. While he knows that a fragile peace is at stake, he can't bring himself to find utter joy in seeing his old teammates again.

He arrives in the city of Sarayashiki and races to Yusuke's apartment, getting a read on the energies inside. He curses the fact that he is drawn into Spirit World nonsense once more, but there is a presence there that he has felt before, although it is more refined now. More powerful…

"Hiei! Bout time you got here, how's it goin' pal?" Yusuke greets cheerfully as Hiei enters, his eyes roaming the room until he finds the addition to the old team.

There Alexa sits, meeting his gaze with an astonished look of her own.

"What is she doing here? The last I saw her she was hardly able to function," Hiei barks, pointing rudely at her and addressing Yusuke, who has the same cheeky grin at the man's reaction that he did over a year ago.

"_She_ has a name, the use of which we went over when we first met, I believe. Anyway, you think Genkai would let me sit and screw around? I learned Japanese, learned how to control my energy, and learned how to beat people up. This may be my first outing, but I know what I'm getting into," Alexa replies with a thin, scathing smile. Hiei is about to reply in kind but Kurama sets a firm hand on his shoulder, distracting him from the slew of witty insults that sit on the tip of his tongue.

"Master Genkai trained her and has even given her recommendation. You know she doesn't do that often, if at all."

"Yeah runt, me n' Kurama even helped with training her so we can vouch. More than I can say for you, even after all this time," Kuwabara adds, throwing a friendly arm around Alexa's shoulders. Alexa gives a cheesy grin despite herself and the occasion and gives the rest of the group two finger guns. Yusuke returns them with gusto and Hiei resigns himself to insanity as Kurama slides his hand off his shoulder.

"We need to get going. We are on a time limit, after all." The group makes themselves comfortable sitting in meditative positions on the floor after the poignant reminder.

"So how are we supposed to get to Spirit World anyway, it's not like Botan is here to ferry us there," Yusuke points out, with Kuwabara and Alexa murmuring afterwards that they also didn't know. Hiei looks just about done with everything, solidifying a promise in his mind to win the next Demon World Tournament if it's the last thing he ever does. He and Kurama close their eyes and easily separate as spirits from their bodies, Kurama explaining that it's like being asleep and awake at the same time. Hiei adds on that they need to hurry up. The last member of the group, Spirit Defense Force Captain Shunjun, steps forward to alleviate their concern.

"All you need to do is go to sleep. I will awaken only your soul after that."

"Yeah, easy enough to say but I'm all wound up and can't just fall asleep," Kuwabara retorts, Yusuke adding on right after that he just woke up himself. Alexa merely allows her eyes to flutter closed in the meantime, trusting that Shunjun would fulfill his end, although she attempts to astral project by herself first while Yusuke and Kuwabara are beat upside their heads by Yusuke's mother.

"Good job, Alexa. It's always a bit tougher on the first try but you seem to be handling it well," Kurama compliments upon Alexa opening her eyes. Alexa gapes down at the scene below her, seeing her sleeping body.

"Whoooooa. Thanks, I try my best," she replies, any further conversation cut off by the appearance of the souls of Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Shunjun.

"I flew Puu over, so he should still be on the roof," Alexa comments, and the team floats upward to Yusuke's spirit beast, Yusuke still cursing his mother as they ascend toward the heavens. Much to Alexa's discomfort, she ends up scrunching between Hiei and Kurama (although it isn't Kurama that she minds so much). This discomfort eases as an idea and some former advice pops into her head.

"So… last I saw you, you taught me about relying on instinct, so no one can read my thoughts really easily," she says pointedly to Kurama, although her tone of voice and its volume suggest that she desires Hiei to listen in as well. Alexa wants, more than anything, to prove to him that while she can't beat him on a level playing field, she could mess with his head at the very least. Hiei sees through her tactic right away, but deigns to listen in. Alexa wouldn't be able to tell if he does, anyway.

But what Hiei doesn't realize is that his foxy friend, Kurama, has told her some wayward minor personality traits about him in their times of training. Kurama also senses Alexa's strategy, and having never been above a good prank himself, goes along with it.

"It is a useful skill, and you never know when it may need to be called on. While it certainly hasn't often come my way, I've thwarted many enemies that would have created various issues to my cause," Kurama replies politely, while subtly loud enough for Hiei to listen in on. Although Alexa still can't discern if Hiei is cooperating, Kurama is perfectly aware of his attention.

"Yeah. I can't imagine ever meeting a mind-reader though. That type of ability sounds really hokey and overcompensating. I mean, if you're really strong you shouldn't have to read your opponent's mind. Don't you think so?"

The emphasis on the words "hokey" and "overcompensating" causes Hiei's teeth to grit and a quiet growl of disdain to rumble in his chest. Kurama ignores it.

"Yes, I quite agree. Even outside of battle, mind readers will have a tendency to pry where they shouldn't just to extract information. That is a far more difficult enemy to face, but if you maintain a steady barrier the way me and Master Genkai taught you, you shouldn't have anything to worry about," Kurama finishes out, knowing from a glance at Hiei's face that their ploy is working. Working so well, in fact, that as Puu drifts past the line that defines the borders of Human and Spirit World, Hiei twists his torso with a face so menacing that Alexa almost breaks her cool by laughing at how well her plan is working. As a last-ditch effort, she contorts her face into an overstated, comical frown. Thankfully, her face doesn't distract Hiei from his wrath at their goading.

"You two think you're smart, don't you? I tire of your foolish jokes, Fox. I'm not reading the woman's mind–"

"Alexa!" she pipes up indignantly, although she doesn't further her protest to escape ruining her joint prank.

"–because there's nothing of value to find there anyway!" Hiei seethes, but his anger becomes dethroned by confusion. Kurama puts a hand to his smirking face as Alexa gives the fire demon a look of mischief that draws parallels to Yusuke's. Hiei briefly notes that their eyes are even about the same shade of brown as he enters a stare down with her.

"Oooh, so you're a mind reader?"

Hiei, being Hiei, isn't often baffled. Especially by humans. Except for perhaps Kuwabara's innate ability to be an oaf, Yusuke's fighting ability (when he was still fully human, at least), and even Sensui. But now, he can only go over the conversation they purposefully laid out for him, looking for any sign of what has turned him into the clueless wonder of the situation. He finds nothing.

"What do you mean? I'm sure Kurama or that fool Kuwabara told you while training you and talking behind my back," he responds with a scalding look towards Kurama. It hardly fulfills its purpose and only causes the red-haired man to release a few soft chuckles.

"Oh they didn't tell me. You did. Just now. Score one for deception, thank youuuu Kurama!" Alexa cheers, raising a hand up and receiving her well-earned high five. Hiei doesn't give the satisfaction of any more of his attention to the two celebrating tricksters. He chooses instead to cross his arms and stew in the slight to his pride.

_"It was all Kurama. I'm sure that woman_–"

"'_Alexa!'"_

Hiei pauses, his nose wrinkling in disgust when Alexa's voice interrupts him in his silent conversation to himself. Not in a mind-reading way, of course. The Jagan provides far more protection than a simple human can get through. Hiei concludes that she interrupts him often enough to demand use of her name that it has stuck. It resembles many of the chidings from his former… partner. That was the term that had fit them best, months ago…

"Hey guys, what the hell're you doing back there?! We're kinda here on important business, remember?!" Yusuke yells back over his shoulder, having heard Alexa's jubilation at duping Hiei.

It's at this that Alexa sheepishly quiets down but turns her attention to the new world around her. An inky sky dominates from horizon to horizon, but even without the light of stars or the moon it isn't pitch dark and impossible to discern their surroundings. The ground roils up in large hills to jagged mountains and bisecting the land in grand turns is a glowing white line. No distinct buildings come in view, no city lights, no vehicles, no essence of anything human. The environment that can be seen is obviously different from the parallel dimension they have left behind.

"So, what's the glowy white line? I'd say this place is a bit different than what I imagined, but I would've had to've imagined it first," she asks, pointing down at it after Puu turns and his starboard wing gives them a view.

"That is the River Styx," Shunjun replies, having decided that he quite liked the human after also listening in to the former conversation.

"Oh. I forgot that was a thing."

All levity of the former talks and any wonder at the domain of Spirit World ends as Puu sets down on a ridge that looks toward a massive structure with a façade that is not only impossibly tall but is endless in length. An imposing tower of the palace stretches even farther upward, creating an impressive vision of Asian architecture. The group disembarks from Puu's back and Yusuke gathers them to discuss their strategy. Once Alexa is out of earshot, Kurama takes the opportunity to inform Hiei of a fact that gives one more bitter sting to his pride.

"I had nothing to do with that, other than teaching her that true deception requires multiple layers… As well as suggesting that she should attempt such on you the first time she meets you after her training. I had to give her some form of leverage," he mutters lightly, Hiei growling at his words and for the ever-so-slight hint of mocking in the former thief king's voice. Too late did the fire demon catch the underlying hint: a form of leverage. Why would she need leverage over him? As far as Hiei is concerned, he will never interact with Alexa again. After this mission is done, he even makes a rash vow to never again see her. She is a human, living firmly in Human World. Sure, she may have some training that makes her comparable to Kuwabara, but in Hiei's book that's not amounting to much. He is a demon, and though he knows that he still has much to attain in strength, he is also aware that he is of a high and powerful standing in Demon World. A tiny voice in the back of his mind that sounds suspiciously like the woman he has awkwardly left back in the demon plane chides that despite his "superiority," he has just been craftily undermined by yet another human. He pushes back the voice and decides to shove the issue away for later in light of the discussion at hand.

Shunjun has produced a map of the palace looming ahead, describing the single entrance and the alarm system that will sound should they approach by air or destroy the walls. While the others are listening in as he does so, Alexa can't also help but notice how seemingly relaxed her counterparts are. While Kuwabara had regaled her with his past adventures with Yusuke, at the time they still seemed like far-off fairy tales. Now, sitting in a dangerous situation for the first real time, she can't help but feel equal parts relieved to be with an experienced team and terrified of gravely screwing up. She has already made her opening statement to Hiei and been given such kind compliments from her master, Kuwabara, and Kurama, she couldn't fathom continuing to the special team should she fail here. While she's made serious mistakes in her life before, none seem to match the magnitude of what she has signed on for. This moment is pivotal.

A rendezvous of Spirit Defense Force agents catches up to their location at this point, providing any information they can, which is scarce. Koenma and one hundred others are being held hostage, and the team presently has ten hours left to meet the terrorist group's demands.

"What we really need is how many there are and where they're positioned. Since we're down to stealth we can't just go in blind," Yusuke says, drawing affirming nods from Kurama and Shunjun. Alexa remains quiet and attentive. Hiei closes his eyes and applies the useful and not at all "hokey" prowess of his Jagan, taking his cue without a direct command.

"There's thirty-three of them."

"The True Disciples think three is a holy number," Shunjun interjects, noting the confused looks the number produces.

"Well that's dumb and so are they," Alexa snorts, arms crossing to show her disdain on the topic.

"You're already starting to fit in, I like it." Yusuke throws her a thumbs up. Alexa shrugs.

"Terrorists are trashbags just like the politicians and countries who back them."

Alexa's venom causes eyebrows to raise throughout the group but Hiei distracts them with more information about their adversaries. Thirteen are guarding the hostages on the fifth floor, the rest split into pairs standing guard in different, concise positions throughout the palace. He is even able to tell them that they are using guns, gas masks, and walkie-talkies to communicate, along with a security camera system that they've commandeered. Alexa begins to feel a pang of guilt for insulting him earlier until the next words that come from his mouth.

"We should give up. Easier to just give in and order headstones for the hostages."

All respect for Hiei flies out the window at his utterance (to which no one else paid any real mind), and she begins to understand and agree with Kuwabara's views on the man. Alexa knows better than to voice her opinion out loud and breathes deeply to keep from ruining the team's focus. To her relief, she goes unnoticed.

"Well Kurama, you're up. You have the most experience with sneaking into places undetected," Kuwabara commends, and the collective turn their attention to said demon as he mulls over the situation.

"The monitor control room is the first hurdle we must clear," Kurama assesses, pointing to the room on the map.

"Two of 'em guarding the door. Easy enough to take down, just have to be fast enough," Yusuke responds, and the two continue to go through scenarios about taking out the system, in which Shunjun informs them that the system will go off if they input the wrong code in an attempt to disarm it. Alexa sits with them trying to think of anything that her own abilities could add to the cause but remains silent in thought.

"That's all fine and dandy, but we need to figure out how to get in there without detection," Kuwabara adds, hand to chin in pondering the issue he brings up.

"That's why I said we should just give in to their demands," Hiei quips.

"Why don't you try and think of something then?!"

"The same could be said for you!"

"C'mon guys this is hardly the time," Yusuke interrupts in exasperation, conveniently forgetting multiple occasions when he had given in to trifling arguments with any given member of his team. Or Koenma. Or even Keiko. His show of maturity silences the other two well enough as Hiei steps away to sulk and Kuwabara simmers down to focus again.

"Best bet is to put a loop on the security cameras after getting some uniforms to blend in," Alexa quietly puts forth, though she looks uncertain of the merit of her idea until Kurama nods.

"That's a good call. I can handle creating a loop, but that leaves how the cameras operate in the first place and how they survey…" he trails off, looking to Shunjun for more information.

"The monitor in the meeting room goes between each camera in point-five second intervals in a loop, meaning that you will need five seconds to get in and replace those guards. A hefty task," Shunjun obliges, sitting back with a short, frustrated sigh at the complexity of the situation.

"It's not as impossible as it sounds. We should be able to manage taking out the guards within a second," Kurama assuages, and Kuwabara once again brings up that they still have no way in. Alexa is now recovered from her silent elation at being agreed with and her positive contribution. Once more a sly smile lights her face.

"Kuwabara didn't you tell me you can use a sword that cuts open dimension space? Given how much you talk about it I'm surprised you didn't think of it," she states, and though Kurama had just been about to politely suggest that same thing, he merely nods his acquiescence. Kuwabara, while having merit for becoming a model student, didn't recognize the subtle prodding of sarcasm and mocking in her words. The only ones who do are Kurama and Hiei. The latter begrudgingly can't help but admit to himself that Alexa probably entertains as little patience for foolish boasting as he does.

The small voice of the woman in the back of his mind once again prods that Hiei engages in his own form of boasting all the time. The voice is easily ignored, however, as Kuwabara blows up at the prospect of using his famed Jigentou.

"It's not like I can control where it will go to! We'll be lucky if we even get inside the building, and that's if I can even form it in the first place!"

Hiei easily resolves the issue within moments, ceasing Kuwabara's rants.

"Hold on, I'm starting to overhear something… They're aiming their inter-dimensional cannon at Sarayashiki," he starts, to which he gets the desired reaction of Kuwabara's full attention. Although he can't fathom Yukina's taste, the affection shared between his gentle twin sister and the human boy did have its uses. Hiei can't object to their affair, as it would mean telling her about their relation, a task still too difficult for Hiei to complete.

"It makes sense, I guess. From their point of view, Yusuke is at fault for the barrier dissolution and they probably think he's the devil incarnate," Hiei continues, and at that detail Alexa can't help but ruin the mood.

"Yusuke isn't a vessel for Lucy. That honor belongs to Sam Winchester."

None of her group understand her reference and merely move on from it as she sighs in disappointment.

"As I was saying, if fired the laser will destroy everything within a fifty-kilometer radius of where it strikes."

Kuwabara stands motionless, his mind racing back to his beloved ice maiden who is taking up residence with his family. Echoes of her benevolent well-wishes for his safety ring in his ears and the thought of her mortal peril makes his arm twitch out and his hand, in a flash, grips the Jigentou. He points it ebulliently toward the palace, now filled with righteous anger.

"What're we waiting for, let's go team!"

* * *

**Some action awaits us at last! Hiei hates his life, Alexa is being a doof, and Kurama is being... Kurama. **

**I have a pressing, rather urgent need to work on a different project of mine, but I have chapters in storage for this story to post in the meantime. **

**Til next time,**

**-A**


	4. And Then and the Audacity

**Welcome to another chapter, I'm Again With This! **

**My updates are fewer as a different project is taking up all my brain space, and with the past month of holidays and my illnesses and injuries, I've been a lil spacey on everything. I won't abandon this bad boy though, even if only one person reads it!**

**Without further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

**-And Then and the _Audacity-_**

Despite the exasperated expressions of the rest of the team at Kuwabara, they all stand ready to follow through on their plan. Finally, Alexa is to see her action. The SDF conveniently provides a pair of costumes that match those worn by the patrolling terrorists, and it's quickly settled that Yusuke and Kuwabara will slide into them over their regular clothing. Alexa suggests that she provide Kurama assistance with retaking the security system room. He agrees, citing also that given her greenness to the situation, she's better suited to have accompaniment anyway.

Kuwabara swipes his Jigentou and out the team of five pops into the correct hallway, beginning their five second timer. In a stroke of truly divine favor, the pair of guards are situated right below them right outside their first destination. Kuwabara, Yusuke, and Hiei take care of knocking them out, having come out of the slash in space first. Kurama and Alexa snatch the key to the security room from the pocket of one of the unconscious guards, while Kuwabara and Yusuke take the walkie-talkies to report when cued. As Alexa follows Kurama into the room, she watches as Hiei drags the two bodies to the end of the hallway to bind them. All of this happens within their time limit, to Alexa's amazement. While any untrained human would never be able to quite see the speed they work at, she feels a surge of confidence for her ability to keep up.

"So what kind of operating system are they using on their computers here? I don't really know much about coding but as a child of technology I pick up stuff sometimes," she murmurs, to which Kurama politely waves her off.

"For all that demons and those in Spirit World brag about their superiority, human world technology is far beyond what they have been able to keep up with. This system is well within my capacity."

"Cool. You focus on that then and I'll calm our fidgety friends in the hallway."

Yusuke has already peeked through the door to ask if the security loop is finished, to which he gets no affirmative until his third time checking in. At this, Yusuke and Kuwabara shirk the goofy-looking outfits and the group splits apart (with Alexa remaining alongside Kurama) to take out the rest of the guards in a new time limit of two hours.

Alexa watches in awe as Kurama deals out seeds infused with his energy, telling the group that they grow into parrot grass that will mimic whatever they say to it when prompted. This settles the problem of the ringleader checking status with the walkie-talkies. She decides to praise demon world flora to Kurama after the mission is complete.

Alexa does not press to use her special type of reiki technique, knowing that hand-to-hand combat is still the stealthiest mode of completing their current task. It doesn't take long for the group to meet again, the twenty guards disposed of, all in the chamber with the controls to the interdimensional laser.

"I can't believe this thing is real. 'Built as a gift to God in an age long past' my butthole," she states, her disbelief making way for indignance on the behalf of her race. Who are these spirit world denizens to decide that they are loftily above humans in every way when there exists such a weapon as this? Alexa privately decides that humans are only unequal in their lifespans, nothing more.

"Our resident professor Kuwabara should be able to handle the task of taking this thing down, right? Yusuke questions, only half-joking.

"It says, right in front of your uneducated face, that any attempt to take it apart will cause it to self-destruct," Kuwabara replies, taking the half-joke seriously.

"Awfully nice of them to put forth the instructions on how not to die," Alexa drawls with an attitude so reminiscent to Hiei's that it makes all excepting the man himself react by staring at her blinking. Yusuke can't keep the hint of a smile from his lips but concentrates as Kuwabara reads about the control mechanism of the laser.

"There're three main buttons… Two are fakes, so if you press one of them the thing goes kaboom. What a stupid disarming measure," he reads out.

"They're religious bigots, not mad scientists. Cut them some slack," Alexa jokes, once again sarcastic. This time, however, her nerves bleed through her words at the idea of failure.

"Well, only thing we can do is ask the leader directly. We already know that the last thirteen are with the hostages." Yusuke shrugs, once again turning to Kurama's expertise and wisdom. The group hastily plans out a strategy to sneak into the room from underneath the hostages, hide amongst them, and then attack together to effectively protect the captive group. With five against thirteen, each of them must take down two or three opponents that possess guns and easy targets if not dealt with quickly.

Alexa decides to take the rear of the team, trailing behind as they make their way to a room directly below where the rest of the conspirators and their captives are holing up. A gap in the ceiling later, the team is covertly shuffling in with the hostages (who immediately understand that their survival is waging on them acting dubious). Alexa manages not to openly stare at the ogres to focus on getting into position. She and Kurama earlier made the decision to split, as their movements will be more difficult to trace. Right as she gets to her spot with two gun-toting baddies, the one watching a security monitor cries out that their outside guards have been attacked. Before much else can happen, Yusuke shouts out the signal to attack, and the five fighters are instantly set to action.

Alexa instinctively releases a worthy amount of energy to bolster the overall power of the offensive she is planning. Music that comes from her energy serves as her catalyst, the energy stabilizing and becoming denser than when it lay controlled and dormant within. A pop/EDM song from America blasts from her body, one she had been listening to a few hours before being called to action. Those within her vicinity flinch at the force of the bass, which she uses to her advantage to gain a split-second lead on her opponents.

The first of her targets recovers and hefts his gun up toward her, to which she darts to the side to draw his aim and consequential gunfire away from the group of hostages. The subdivisions of beats and flow of the melody floating over the top guide her movements, all moments fitting into whatever the music is, all retaliation laying out in her mind to the rhythms she produces.

Alexa carries out her true strategy as she speeds straight to the man aiming for her, who shoots in panic, realizing too late that she is deceptively strong and is pushing away the gun. The bass of the music pulses as she makes physical contact. Her other target behind her falls to his comrade's bullets, as she purposefully positioned him to catch friendly fire in her former dodge.

She puts both hands on the gun, breaking his fingers as she uses the slight slack from the sling holding the gun as leverage to slam the butt into his jaw. He immediately slumps. Alexa takes no pity and lets him drop with a harsh thud, reining in her energy and effectively ending the surge of "dance fighting" instincts it affords. It is now that her body reminds her lungs that it needs oxygen, and she pants lightly to regain some footing. Her racing heartbeat surges into her ears, but her anxiety lessens when she turns her gaze to see the results of the team's assault.

"Hell yeah, got 'em all! Let's tie 'em up and figure out our next move!" Yusuke cheers, Kuwabara rowdily joining in his victory. The chore gets done, although the apparent leader of the organization is bound on his own so that they can directly question him. The man has blood dribbling from his mouth, and despite his defeat still smirks in triumph.

"Red, blue, or yellow?! Which button is the right one, spill!" Yusuke demands, hefting the man up by the front of his shirt.

"We have a final teaching: 'The Three Choices of the Outsider.' Mankind's fate belongs to one not of our faith… God's plan is absolute… Free will is an illusion, man will always be doing what God ultimately wants. The choice is simple; one button will fire the laser at Sarayashiki, one causes the laser to self-destruct, which will cause it to destroy the Gates of Judgment, and the third is where nothing happens at all and the laser disarms itself. Ah, but I suppose there is a fourth: waiting too long, making the laser fire automatically. You will make the decision-" the man pauses to draw his tongue over his teeth, loosening one and biting down on it.

"-But the end choice will be what God desires. Without fail…" The man dies choking around the foam in his mouth from the cyanide pill.

"And he didn't even say 'hail hydra,'" Alexa mutters quietly, crossing her arms in renewed apprehension. Her small quip of humor fails miserably, as Kuwabara curses about the target actually being Sarayashiki and not just a lie made by Hiei.

"You guys need to get out of here. Far as you can."

Yusuke's sudden declaration surprises the group into silence, which Yusuke uses to elaborate.

"Even if we can only get our friends and family out of danger, we have to try something. Alexa, this is your first gig, it'd be a shame for you to die after such a great audition. Tell grandma she does a great job choosing students."

"Have you finally gone completely stupid?! We're not just leavin' you here! I'll stay too!" Kuwabara objects, and after a shouting match of an argument, Kurama steps in with a hand on Kuwabara's shoulder.

"He's right, Kuwabara. If at least we can get our dear ones to safety, we need to go," he says gently, to which Kuwabara gives in, albeit with struggle.

"Personally, I don't mind. From what Master Genkai tells me, you've got great luck and you don't tend to overthink things. You're perfect for this situation," Alexa comments, another bittersweet attempt at humor with a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. The ex-detective rolls his eyes, but sighs in resignation.

"I'd object but honestly yeah I'm dumb as a brick. I accept it. No worries though guys, multiple choice questions are my specialty," Yusuke replies, letting out a few breathy laughs that betray his fear despite the determination on his face.

Kurama and Kuwabara disappear as the hostages evacuate from the palace. Yusuke has gone down to the laser control room to contemplate his decision, and before Alexa closes her eyes to focus her spirit back in on her body, she notices Hiei and a toddler heading out after Yusuke.

"Wait, you're not going to stay, are you?"

Hiei merely grunts and continues walking. The toddler, however, stops and turns to face her.

"You're Genkai's final student, right?"

Alexa already had Koenma, current ruler of the Spirit World and Yusuke's former boss, described to her. She still finds it awkward to hear such formal language from this visage, no matter how many times she repeats his archaic age to herself. Her head jerks in affirmation when she realizes he's waiting for a response.

"Well, I was on the fence before, even with the shining recommendations given to you, but I have made sure that you will be assigned to the team we are putting together. I am partly to blame for this mess we're all in... Yusuke got dragged into everything because of me, and I am going to stay here to take responsibility. You'd best be getting back now. Get yourself out of Sarayashiki," Koenma advises, leaving Alexa dumbfounded as he curtly turns and walks away.

With a shake of her head to regain focus, Alexa closes her eyes and allows herself to drift back down to her body….

**-AND THEN…-**

Alexa doesn't care about her red, bleary, tear-streaked face and how it looks to her friends. She doesn't care that she already knew. She doesn't even care that, given the will, she inherited a temple, a heap of land, and all she needs to do to earn it is wear a traditional Japanese priestess costume during the funeral.

Alexa doesn't care about anything so superficial: Genkai is gone.

She feels the pang of emptiness the same way she did when her biological grandmothers passed away. Despite her grief, no music plays. In times of great emotion, she usually loses control, and everyone believes she continues to maintain it.

She doesn't.

Because of the past ways she needed to process her grief, Alexa isn't used to having support and a group of people around her to mourn with her. No one pressures her to open up, for which she is immensely grateful. There are blips of happiness, however; Alexa is finally introduced to Keiko, Shizuru, and Botan. It's after the short and simple funeral (as per Genkai's wishes for something "not drawn out and stupid") and two of the three are sniffling and wiping their eyes right along with her.

"Oh Genkai. Just like you to choose right down to the moment when to go," Botan hiccups into her teacup, its contents already gone. Alexa puts her own cup to her lips, sipping at the now-cold tea.

"Yeah, but she was definitely ready. She also knew we were ready to get along without her now," Shizuru responds calmly, her words spoken to the group but directed toward one certain member.

"Hey everyone, we're going to go down to the shore that's on the property. Kazuma suggested it and I couldn't help but agree to it."

The group of ladies look up to see the gentle, ever-lovely Yukina approaching them with a smile as kind as her demeanor. When Alexa had first settled into the temple to be trained, she and Yukina became fast friends. It was hard not to; the ice maiden was not only friendly, but curious about Human World and Alexa couldn't help but oblige her with knowledge on the United States.

"I think that's a great idea, Yukina. We'd better get going before Yusuke starts complaining," Keiko affirms, standing first and letting Shizuru and Botan follow her out of the temple room to the courtyard. Yukina and Alexa stay, and once the other three have left Yukina deigns to take a seat next to Alexa.

"Are your eyes hurting you?" she asks, subtly broaching the subject of Alexa's unmoving moroseness. The woman's nod is almost imperceptible. She doesn't stop Yukina's hand, glowing with demonic energy, from covering her eyes. The sting and mounting migraine headache behind Alexa's eyes melt away under the refreshing coldness.

"Thanks. I guess I shouldn't be so much in a funk anymore. Genkai would beat me silly," Alexa admits, taking a deep steadying breath afterward, holding it for a few seconds and then releasing. Yukina brings her hand back and stands with Alexa.

"We'd better get going fast before anyone gets worried," Yukina says, and Alexa finally meets her eyes with a small smile of her own. But in the moment that Alexa gets a good look at Yukina's face, she notices that it seems strangely familiar, as if she suddenly recognizes her from somewhere else in her life. Alexa lets Yukina start walking ahead of her to frown comedically and turn her eyes up in thought.

"That doesn't make any sense though, I never got that feeling before when Yukina lived here…" she trails off muttering to herself. She shakes her head and focuses back on following her demon friend. Soon enough she joins the group consisting of her friends and new teammates. All are now in considerably more chipper moods, and Alexa can't help but let herself be embraced and bolstered by it.

"Sorry I'm late, had to make sure no one would break in," she jokes, earning a few short laughs. The group starts out walking a well-beaten trail laying before them that leads to the beach with only an hour walk downhill.

"Y'know, it's a good thing you were around Alexa. Grandma would've had a hell of a time getting me to be executor of her estate or whatever. Almost surprised no mooching relatives came to try and stake a claim," Yusuke brings up, throwing his arms up behind his head and keeping his gaze skyward.

"I don't think she had any relatives, thus why she left everything to us. You're her successor and knew her longer than me, _dimwit_," Alexa responds playfully.

"Hey now, that old bat is the only one allowed to call me that!"

"Not anymore, she gave me exclusive privilege to do so in her letter to me. She did, after all, leave a letter for each of us."

Yusuke sticks his bottom lip out slightly in a pout and glares at the sky, his way of showing that he is internally cursing his teacher's name and the _audacity!_ Alexa takes this petulant silence to fall back slightly to match Kurama's pace, one part of her mind already disgusted with the question that she is burning to ask for whatever reason.

"Hey Kurama, can I ask you something?"

"I don't see why not."

His kind smile turns inquisitive at Alexa's following apprehension. She fidgets with the hem of her shirt before settling her internal argument with a frustrated sigh.

"Uh… Did Hiei make it out okay? He may hate me and I don't really care that he does but I just haven't seen him ever since and I have a tendency to worry about everyone in general. My friends always referred to me as 'The Mom Friend' and I guess even all this time toughening up hasn't changed that," Alexa musters, failing at her attempt to sound nonchalant.

"Yes, Hiei is fine. He went off back to Demon World once the whole ordeal blew over. For what it's worth, I don't think he hates you. In fact, I think you even impressed him slightly that night. He has his own sort of language that you have to learn to interpret," Kurama replies with a soft chuckle, his words getting a shrug out of Alexa.

"Not like I'll ever get the opportunity to learn it. I'm going to be busy keeping up the temple and with the commissioned team, I'll probably never see him again."

Now, Alexa is genuinely excited about her appointment to this team, and she knows that Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara will also be carrying out missions when they can or when it is imperative that they are present. Kurama realizes that she didn't receive any information regarding Hiei's involvement.

And so, the demon fox is presented with a tempting choice: Tell Alexa about Hiei being on the team and that she'll be working with him or wait until the team musters in the Demon World capitol in two weeks and watch the hilarious interaction between the two. As Kurama has never been above a good prank, the conclusion he comes to is obvious.

The group settles into easy conversation, Alexa only making funny or knowledgeable contributions every now and then. Kurama mulls over the curious balance between two of his friends. He didn't lie when he answered Alexa's concern about Hiei hating her, but… Hell, Kurama may be able to read Hiei for the most part but sometimes he still surprises, and Alexa only asked after him out of a guilty conscience. As time passes with their descent onto the beach, Kurama concludes that the reaction to come from the next meeting of Alexa and Hiei will be entertaining, if not interesting.

* * *

**I refuse to write a boring and stuffy Kurama. I have written out the end of the series, and then within the next chapter we will move on to something new! Hell yeah.**

**Thanks to those who have followed/favorited/read/whatevered this story. If there are any egregious errors or if there's anything constructive or praiseworthy, drop a review! I will do my best to accommodate, answer questions, fix things, and I always respond.**

**Til next time,**

**-A**


	5. Killin' You Softly for a Cheap Taco

**Aw/T is here, I'm here, all is good. Welcome to chapter five!**

**Once again, updates are a bit slow, but when my main focus is complete (fairly soon, really), this will be my main update, with a regular schedule and everything.**

**To the chapter!**

* * *

**-Killin' You Softly for a Cheap Taco-**

When the group arrives at the beach, it's already late in the afternoon, with the sun shining over the sea that spreads westward. Keiko and Yukina immediately tug off their shoes and detach from the group that settles on a cluster of driftwood logs. Alexa is about to pull out her phone to take a picture of their surroundings when she hears Keiko calling for her.

"What is it, are you guys okay?"

"We'd be better if you were enjoying the water with us!"

With a moody exhalation through her nose, Alexa shoves her phone back in her pocket and pulls her Toms off. She grumbles about sand between her toes and the walk back to the temple as she tromps to her friends. The group she leaves behind can't help but give a few snickers and laughs at her expense.

"You know Yusuke, she almost acts like you. Never thought someone so agreeable and pretty could ever pull that off," Botan chitters, earning a glare from the intended subject. Yusuke stands with a huff.

"Well it just so happens that I'd like to take a nice walk alone, thanks. Guy saves the world _multiple_ times and still gets constantly roasted by his so-called 'friends.' Gee Yusuke you have such good taste!"

The young man stomps away, kicking some sand and going off alone. He stops short for a moment to stare at Alexa, who is ankle deep in the water talking to Keiko with a noticeably flat expression. The words Genkai left for him begin to sink deeper and deeper but he has no intention of figuring out their meaning without some help. To Yusuke, it means bringing it up to Keiko later.

"Perfect. I'm sure that'll be an enjoyable conversation," he mutters, continuing on his way with his arms thrown up behind his head. The group he leaves behind are so used to his attitude that they take none of it seriously. Instead, they choose to continue talking about their team leader. Alexa, Keiko and Yukina mosey their way back toward the group when they see the huge grins on the faces of Botan and Kuwabara, Alexa pointing out that her curiosity is killing her.

"So there were three buttons to choose from right? And knowing Urameshi he'd always choose red because he's that predictable," Kuwabara starts out, before Botan takes the reins with excitement.

"But he chose the blue one instead!"

"And blue is Yukimura's favorite color-"

"And he said, 'they have their god, but I've got my goddess.'"

After the back and forth between the two, Kuwabara, Botan, and Kurama all tilt their heads back in glee.

"What a corny saying!"

Alexa spurts out in laughter with her friends, Keiko's face turning a bright red. Despite her embarrassment, she turns toward Yusuke's moping form. After a few moments they watch as Keiko sprints out after him, overcome with emotion at the touching words. Alexa feels a twinge, a pang of an old wound that has been buried for over a year by the focus of training and moving to Japan to control her powers. Once Keiko pounces on Yusuke, sending them crashing into the water, Alexa turns away completely to internally beat down all the negative feelings that are raising their foul heads.

"Just a couple more weeks, Alexa, and then you'll be too busy again to even think about this crap anymore."

... ... ...

Hiei's return to Demon World was nothing special. He reported to King Enki and got back out of that castle as quickly as he could. With two weeks until the muster for the diplomatic guard team, straying too far from the capital would be too bothersome. Instead, he decides to resume his old habits from his time in Human World and practically nap all day.

Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it's immediate, but his mind usually wanders to his old team, and to the newest member of that team. That… "Alexa."

He doesn't like her. Doesn't like the fact that she even pops up into his head. But he can't seem to stop, and the teasing from that damned detective didn't ever help things either. Over and over those words echo in his head, the ones he had so coolly brushed away when they were said.

"_Wait, you're not staying, are you?"_

Her words, that tone! Such human sentiments and they didn't even remotely get along. One small battle and already she projects camaraderie… In the old days Hiei would've scared and angered those humans enough in the beginning that they would stay away. It worked with Kuwabara… But the detective and now Alexa are practically the same. It annoys Hiei to think that someone would worry about him like that.

"I won't be seeing that stupid woman ever again anyway. If my mind keeps this up the Jagan may as well jump out of my forehead," he mutters, the rumbles of a far-off storm answering in echoes to his self-deprecating remark.

It's been only a few days since Genkai's funeral and the group's convening at her estate and Yusuke is already full of dread. The piece of paper sitting on his countertop in the tiny apartment his ramen shop affords him remains a glaring reminder of the talks he needs to have with not only Keiko, but with Alexa too. The whole mess is already weighing heavy on the teenager's mind.

"Well, can't put it off too long. Keiko better be able to help me."

Picking up his phone and selecting Keiko's number on his contacts, he puts it to his ear and waits for her to pick up. She shouldn't be in school or anything, and he never calls like this unless it's important. She just HAS to answer!

_You've reached the voicemail box of _YUKIMURA KEIKO_. If you would like to leave a message, wait for the tone._

Yusuke feels a shiver of indignance at being ignored. He has been on his best, most responsible behavior! She has no reason to be mad at him. With a huff, he leaves a petulant message elaborating that he needs to have a serious conversation with her as soon as possible.

After putting his phone on the counter, he sits on one of his barstools and gives an Oscar-worthy sigh of contempt. He takes a glance at the letter left to him by his late teacher and feels the anxious pit in his stomach grow deeper.

_I just can't wrap my head around what you want me to do, Genkai. I only hope Keiko can help me figure it out._

The ex-detective pops his knuckles to shake the negative thoughts away and begins busying himself to get ready for a day at his little ramen stand.

**-TWO WEEKS LATER, DEMON WORLD CAPITAL-**

**-LEVEL START!-**

Alexa had an early start, or rather, she never really stopped. Due to nerves, she stayed awake all night. It didn't take long to get settled in the temple, and Genkai had left substantial funds for an internet and television package before Alexa earned enough to pay them herself. But this whole belligerent new world is standing right there waiting and she is both intrigued and terrified by it. On one spectrum there's Kurama, the well-mannered, intelligent demon. On the other end is Hiei, who is rude and brutish. Yusuke only half applies, and Alexa can't help but not count him. He was socialized as a human.

Alexa frets over her reception given she has been warned several times that the average demon denizen thinks humans are weak and/or food. She can protect herself from a good chunk of them, she's been told. But she's also aware that the strongest of the strong are always those who rule. That's how the hierarchy works. All the human diplomacy, politics, and hoopla don't apply.

"Alexa, how are you dealing with everything? Most humans faint when they breathe our air, we're really happy you've become so strong that it's not an issue."

Alexa swivels her head up to the left from watching her feet to one of her teammates and demon friends, Touya. The smile she gives is so weak that Touya raises an eyebrow.

"Oh I'm okay, and that's really nice of you to say. I like to think I could beat all those cocky MMA fighters on TV these days. Kurama made me get up at the asscrack of dawn to make our way here. Otherwise I'm just _dandy_, waiting for stuff to happen. We'll all have to go out for dinner and a drink later and catch up," Alexa answers, her dramatic yawn afterwards causing her to shoot a dirty look at Kurama's back. She doesn't care if he catches it or not at this point: they could've left a little later than they did, even if she wasn't really sleeping anyway.

"Didn't the ol' master get ya up early?" Jin sounds from Alexa's right, and he laughs afterwards at her sheepish pout at his question.

"I'm just making my own adjustments to my schedule. I am twenty-four years old, you know."

"Twenty-four? I was still practically an infant at twenty-four," Touya chuckles, tilting his head back as if to reminisce in fond memories. He and Jin continue to poke fun at Alexa's objective youth to their hundreds of years of life, much to her disdain.

"Hey now, you like Yusuke and he's eighteen. Gimme a break," Alexa finally interjects, ending the friendly teasing. Quite literally, the two centuries-old demons stop with contemplative looks. Alexa, Kurama, and another demon unfamiliar to Alexa take pause to wait for them to come to terms with whatever the two are realizing.

"Yusuke IS only eighteen… How could we forget that? That's insane!" Jin exclaims, a mask of incredulous horror covering his face. Touya shrugs and keeps his deep, thoughtful expression. The group begins their troop to the Demon World Capital once more.

"Yusuke is practically a force of nature already. We'll all be in trouble if and when he grows to be much older," Kurama adds, the unfamiliar demon standing beside him rolling his four serpentine eyes. He's not the first wacky-looking demon Alexa ever encountered, but there's still a mindset of it being normal that she hasn't attained yet.

"That Urameshi has a long time before he matches the old kings. He's still half _human_," the reptilian hisses, practically spitting the word "human" the same way conservatives back in America say "gay," "Mexican," or "democrat." Alexa narrows her eyes grumpily at the creature as her three friends look disapprovingly at him, but he only shrugs in dismissal. He jerks when Alexa speaks, however.

"Look, it's a whole new ballgame with working together, but keep insulting my race and I'll show you why you'll regret ever doing so," she threatens, releasing some of her energy and allowing a song with a deep and ominously encroaching bass to pulse around her. Over and over and _over_ again, she was told that strength is all that matters in Demon World. Combining with her nervousness and her exhaustion, she just can't take this bullcrap right now! Definitely not the time to be meek and hide behind her friends.

"You can't be serious! You may be strong enough to breathe our air but you're on the special forces team only as a token. Remember that!"

The bitter response only causes Alexa's music to reach a fervent volume as her three friends step back.

"You dunnit now, Reptilius," Jin mocks in a sing-song voice.

Without sparing a breath to argue, Alexa darts forward, her energy approaching high levels with an immense density. Reptilius can only watch as she darts around him in time with the music in a dizzying whir. Before he can catch sight of her, she completely blindsides him with a bruiser of a right hook. He flies back from the impact while his cry of pain is drowned out by the purr of Alexa's energy. She lowers the volume but keeps her energy flowing, her body still making any and all movement in time with the music.

"Wouldja lookit that! That could be on par with Yusuke's from the Dark Tournament, I remember bein' hit with that one!" Jin chatters cheerfully, giving Alexa a thumbs up. Touya gives her an encouraging smile, and from the corner of her eyes she can see Kurama passively watching Reptilius' twitching body. Up the green serpent demon crawls, all four eyes training furiously on the resolute human. Before Reptilius can spew the insults coursing in his head, Alexa calls out to be heard over the music.

"I'm no soft prey to be walked all over. I'd kill you for a cheap taco."

These words cause Kurama to fold his arms, an inconspicuous sign that they alarm him slightly.

Reptilius' response becomes choked in his throat, enraged at the mouthy woman for her taunts.

"I don't know what a taco is but I will give you reason to feel fear, human!"

His concentration on powering up after his bellow is cut off as Alexa whirls around him to grab his tail, and with a grunt of exertion, she lifts him like a ragdoll and slams him on the ground. It isn't enough to gravely injure, but Reptilius releases a groan of pain. Alexa bends down to what she assumes is his ear.

"Told you."

With that, she ends her energy suspension while brushing her hands together in satisfaction. The time spent with her heightened abilities once again causes her to breathe harder and sweat slightly. She remains standing and walks to her companions with a tired grin.

"That was so cliché, like an action movie. I'm thankful he didn't end up being any stronger," Alexa coughs around her steadying breaths, at which her friends realize she's shaking from the terror of the situation catching up with her. Her act of sureness is too thin to be the real deal. They mercifully decide not to point this out.

"Well, be more thoughtful in the future please. He could have been stronger, and with you so readily initiating the fight I would've been rather reluctant to help you," Kurama chides, and although it's a soft scold, the severity in his voice automatically causes her to feel worse about her decisions. Alexa weakly brings her hand up to her brow in salute.

"Aye-aye, cap'n."

Kurama's serious expression doesn't change as he turns to return to their trek to the castle. Alexa meekly ducks her head, mind swirling with anxious self-deprecation. Why did she lose her temper so fast? Has she always been that belligerent? Kurama is steamed at her now. She needlessly escalated the problem and while Reptilius isn't on the Special Forces team, it's still really bad manners, right?

The rest of the travel time is spent in relative silence. Alexa keeps to herself, humbled by her brush with danger and its potential for dire consequences.

Not too long does it take for a city to rise before them, with a castle situated right at the top of a mound in its middle. Alexa gave up trying to understand the weather patterns and atmosphere of Demon World; there are people smarter than her who could gather that information someday and she'll read all about it when they do. But the dim, cloudy sky sparks with lightning occasionally, something Alexa enjoys. Thunderstorms always make her happy.

Thunderstorms still aren't enough to change her mood, however, as the denizens of the city are increasing Alexa's worries exponentially. She never would be able to describe the people to anyone back home appropriately. Some look like they could be human themselves, like Jin and Touya. Others are anthropomorphic, and more still appear monstrous and completely alien. The demons that they walk past murmur and glance her way with curious sniffs. Most satiate their curiosity and turn back to their errands. Few appear surprised, and fewer still look affronted by her presence. Alexa isn't one to prefer being in the spotlight in the first place, and with her shame from her former actions still hanging over her head, her thoughts only go down all the possibilities of how much worse things could get. She recedes more into her mind, making the rest of the trip up into the castle go by in a haze. There are small moments where she is drawn out when presenting a badge to guards and some type of secretary, but Alexa keeps diminutive. No smart remarks. No rebukes in the face of racism. No toeing out of line.

Kurama notices the behavior and can't help but wonder how much overthinking is being done on her part. He doesn't attempt to comfort, as while she may be overthinking, it's a nice change from his usual teammates who tend to not think enough.

"Hey, it's the stragglers! What took you so long, Alexa take three hours putting her face on?"

Yusuke waves them down while snickering at the dirty look and middle finger he receives from Alexa. Jin exchanges a secret handshake once their group convenes with him, and the two begin chattering about their lives in no particular order. Alexa holds her tongue from lashing out at Yusuke but receives a distraction from Kurama that takes away the heated remark she so badly wants to say.

"This room is where we're supposed to meet up. You don't have to wait out here, let's go get settled," he suggests, directing her to a wide metal door set in the left wall. Alexa stares at the door handle before turning to Kurama with a grimace.

"This is worse than being transferred to a new school in the middle of the year," she admits, sucking up a big breath to brace herself and to issue her mind a measure of calm. Unbeknownst to her, Kurama is almost holding a bated breath of his own. He knows Hiei is in the room already. What entertaining reaction will he get?

"I'll have to take your word for it, having never done so myself," he replies casually, mastering his anticipation and allowing Alexa to take hold of the door.

As old as Kurama is, the events that follow serve a satisfactory reminder as to why he finds so much fulfillment and pleasure from being the smartest in any given group of people.

* * *

**I'm never the smartest person in any given group of people, so I can't relate, Kurama. I'm more like Yusuke. Take that information any way you will.**

**Thanks to all those reading, and to those who have showed some form of love so far! This is really fun to write, as I absolutely LOVE writing humor. Satire is on another level, my dudes, go study that stuff and you'll understand humanity better than any angsty dramatist. **

**(This story isn't satire, really, but my point still stands.)**

**Til Next Time,**

**-A**


	6. What's in a Name?

**I'm back! Didn't mean to take so long to get this chapter up, but I have another story that's all my focus right now. I still love this one though so, here I am! **

**We left off with Alexa and Kurama arriving for the team meeting in Demon World. **

**Without further ado, enjoy!**

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**-What's in a Name?-**

Hiei arrives at the rendezvous point for the task force before Kurama, which tips him off that something is planned. Kurama isn't late for these types of functions. Ever. That archaic, analytical mind of his wouldn't allow for him to be late and miss out on surveying those around him. Even Yusuke has arrived before Kurama, which is unheard of in _any_ situation. What is different? Nothing in Human World could possibly be holding him back, the fox has always been careful about avoiding any obligations to get back to the Demon Plane.

There are a few other demons on the team that Hiei recognizes, and they span from B class into the echelons of S class. An interesting detail to be sure. He's watched fighters trickle in steadily from his position against the far wall from the entrance, still trying to work out why Kurama is late. Yusuke could be heard from the hallway from time to time, though the walls are thick enough to make him indiscernible. Hiei hears him yelling briefly before the door opens once more, his eyes widening when their scents hit his nose. Even with energies masked, there's no doubt that the wafting rose is Kurama, but the other is distinctly human… Human with the stink of peaches and a light hint of lavender…

_It can't be!_

He immediately contorts his face from surprise into a fierce glare. He reasonably believed that that idiotic human woman was out of his life for good! Up he gets, ready to speak his mind on the matter.

Kurama meets his gaze and Hiei inwardly snarls at the subtle details of amusement on his face. The woman is warily scanning the room but notices that she is being approached, and locks onto him. Her instantaneous antagonized reaction to seeing him turns up to Kurama with a snap movement of her head. Before Hiei completely realizes it, he and Alexa are speaking at the same time.

"**What the hell, Kurama?!"**

Despite being at the receiving end of their anger, Kurama continues to pleasantly smile as the two lock eyes again to silently fume at each other. Behind them, Yusuke pops into the room and takes in the scene with an uncanny resemblance to the Cheshire Cat.

"What's going on here?" he asks slyly, Kurama moving to the side so he could join the conversation. Hiei and Alexa discontinue their stare down to address their two "friends." A series of increasingly vulgar insults cross Alexa's mind in relation to Yusuke's shit-eating grin.

"I don't know what joke you're trying to pull but bringing along your pet human wasn't a wise choice," Hiei scoffs, deciding to treat her the same way as before. Her indignant squeak makes his eye twitch while Yusuke's ears turn red as he breaks up into more chuckles.

"I don't like what you're insinuating there, pal! I'm here because I earned a spot on this team. Nobody told me you'd be here though; if they had, I would've reconsidered," Alexa spits back, looking to the slightly shorter demon with utter dislike. To her mounting frustration, he refuses to acknowledge she's talking to him, which only serves to make Yusuke laugh louder.

"It's not that funny, god!" she yells, throwing her previous caution to the wind and delivering a kick to the ex-detective's shin. Yusuke's laughter abruptly stops and is replaced with sputters of curses as he brings his leg up to massage the forming bruise.

"What the hell, Alexa goddammit are you wearing steel-toed shoes?"

She sticks her tongue out at him and crosses her arms.

"I know you've had worse so deal with it."

Yusuke shuts his mouth and puts his foot down, barely holding himself back from challenging her to a fight.

"To get back to what you said, Hiei; she has been on this team on her own merit for awhile now. It's imperative to have at least one human full-time, seeing as we'll be working with human diplomats. I was merely escorting her here," Kurama intervenes pleasantly. Alexa nods curtly and attempts once again to gain Hiei's attention by giving him a victorious grin. It falls flat however as he merely rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, Kuwabara has gone full scholar on us. He's too wrapped up in school to even come here today, I think he said that he joined this thing on the condition that his assignments stay strictly in Human World. I have a little more freedom but Keiko is going to college this spring and I wanna help out without her worrying about wherever I'm at, y'know?" Yusuke says, forgetting his bruised leg.

"Yeah, Genkai said I was perfect for the job cuz I have no life," Alexa adds. Yusuke nods his head in understanding.

"Yeah, sounds like something Grandma would say. So you two seriously didn't know you both are on this team?"

Once more Kurama is at the receiving end of two hostile glares, Hiei's intensifying to become far more threatening than Alexa's.

"No, I didn't know. Kurama didn't think it was information worthy of my attention despite the obvious disdain Hiei and I hold for each other. I'll bet Mister Hokey Mind-Reader doesn't even remember my name," she responds, the fake friendliness that lilts her voice acting as an obvious sign of her internal rage. Hiei doesn't take the bait and remains silent, although he narrows his eyes slightly.

"It's hardly my fault, neither of you ever asked," Kurama defends, voice still light. Still pleasant. Still absolutely, infuriatingly correct. Yusuke returns to his teasing grin and opens his mouth to pour fuel on the fire but is interrupted by a booming voice at the other end of the room.

"Hello and welcome to all! I'm glad you could make it. Please sit down and we can get the briefing started to move on to bigger and better things."

Alexa jumps and turns to see the speaker, eyes bugging out when she sees the crimson-skinned giant with horns in his curly black hair and an amiable, excitable smile. All these details point to the only description she has ever been given of the current Demon King: Enki. The group of thirty or so all meander to the neatly lined chairs, although a few deign to just lean against the wall. Hiei is one of them, much to Alexa's relief. Sitting in between Yusuke and Kurama in the front row of chairs, she grips the hem of her shirt and rubs it between her fingers. After a few minutes of shuffling, Enki clears his throat and pulls out a clipboard that is handed to him by a small, blonde, tough-looking woman whose cloud of alcohol reaches even Alexa's less sensitive nose.

"Right, that was done well. Now I want to do a roll call, so I can have further conversation with anyone who decided to no-show that never cleared their absence with me," Enki begins, and no one misses the hint in his deceptively cheerful voice that he will all but murder those who skipped out on something this important. Alexa secretly thanks her lucky stars that Kurama got her up early.

Enki runs down a list of demon names, trading friendly greetings with almost all of them. Then, at last, his face fills with delight.

"Ah, last but most certainly not least! Our one full-time human, the young Miss Alexan–"

"ALEXA. YES. I'M ALEXA ORLOV, I'M HERE."

Enki pauses in confusion, the room tense in atmosphere at her sudden and explosive outburst. Her face flushes in shame as she clutches her shirt even more. Even Yusuke and Kurama are taken back by her actions. She lowers into her seat, shoulders sagging and a white-knuckled grip on her shirt.

"Sorry. Just a little excited, I guess," she chokes out, ducking her head. Her anxiety slams her so strongly that she squeezes her eyes shut to ward off vomiting from the dizziness. Enki glances down at the clipboard again and the group of demon warriors notice the understanding and mirth that washes over his face. All wonder what it could mean, but no answer to their silent queries is given.

Instead, Enki begins a description of the elite team's mission statement and their purpose. Why they were chosen, who they were chosen by, and the importance of their formation. Alexa pays more attention to his words than to any lecture in college she ever attended. Her fingers slowly detach themselves as time passes, her hands folding together in her lap as her nervousness fades and her focus grows. Once the exposition is finished, Enki signals with a snap and a few servants walk in carrying mid-sized bins. Alexa recognizes one, her mouth tightening into a panicky frown. Kurama steals glance at her but doesn't comment, mouth twitching in amusement at her reaction.

For all that Hiei has been mulling over ways to keep away from the human woman, he doesn't keep from observing her. The strange fiasco with her name almost, very nearly, soooooo closely gets him to reading her mind and finding out what her problem is, but he simultaneously remembers her scathing nickname for him. It shouldn't bother him, but it does. Countless opponents before have poked fun at his Jagan, usually about it being artificial. Not about its functions. Yet here is this puny human consistently bringing up her opinion on the matter. Is it because he can't kill her? His other foes were all demons, so he dispatched of them easily. But killing Alexa is still illegal. A subconscious part of Hiei begins to hope that somehow, later down the road, she ends up like Yusuke and awakens demon blood.

As Enki keeps talking, Hiei watches as Alexa loosens up, eventually fixing her short hair into a low ponytail. Now only the fringe and a few framing strands of dark coppery colored hair brush her face. He could tell she dyed it; last time he saw her it was more of a dark chestnut shade. He can still smell the lavender and peach wafting from her as well. To him it overpowers even Koku's usual intense scent of alcohol. It's bothersome. Perhaps such a strong odor will make her an easy target and he won't have to deal with running into her again.

Hiei is drawn from his thoughts once more when he is approached by one of the servants, who is holding out a square-shaped object. He takes it wordlessly, listening to Enki's explanation and glancing around at the reactions of other people receiving theirs.

The devices being passed out are for communication, meant to help with summons and missions. Similar in design to Spirit World technology with Yusuke's old communication mirror, but the surprising detail behind these is their origin.

"These secure devices are built to withstand changes in atmosphere and energy, created and gifted to us by the human United Nations. There are certain high-ranking officials in Human World who also have one of these, along with me and those that head the different sectors of Spirit World. Should anything critical arise and your help needed, you are to take action with discretion; we have fledgling alliances, fragile and cautious. No one is to get involved with Human World politics. Missions will range from security details to routing out those who threaten the balance and peace being attempted. No demon may kill a human, and there are no excuses to do so. If there are any questions, I will answer them privately. I must return to other duties but some of you will have missions immediately. For the rest, I suggest keeping your communicators charged and with the volume on. Good day, everybody," Enki finishes out, the different members of the task force examining their new bits of tech. All are sleek black touchscreens that have two-inch surface areas. It's an obvious step up from even commercial human products, and leagues ahead of Spirit World and Demon World communication technology.

Enki leaves the room and the meeting ends with demons dispersing to go about their regular lives. Alexa is still looking over her com-pod, brows scrunched in study. Yusuke stretches his arms and then shoves his hands into his jacket pockets while getting up.

"I gotta get back home. Told Keiko I wouldn't be gone too long. Oh hey, before I forget: Keiko and I are wondering if we could drop by for New Year's to hang out? She felt bad when she heard you're living up there alone," he addresses, looking down at the woman with mild amusement. Alexa furrows her brows but shakes her head a bit as her brain finally processes his words. She peers up at him, mouth slightly open and eyes narrowed in a spectacularly dumb expression. Yusuke snorts at the picture she makes.

"Huh?"

Yusuke almost falls over at her reaction.

"New year's? Did you hear what I–"

"Oh right right, I got it. Yeah sounds good, keep me posted," she cuts in, her thoughts finally catching up with real time. Yusuke raises a brow as she waves him off and turns to Kurama. He still hasn't found the right moment to bring up the letter Genkai left him, although he did eventually find the right moment to ask for Keiko's advice on the matter.

...

**REWIND: ONE WEEK**

...

"_You know you have no right to hang this over my head, Yusuke. You've flaked out on me too many times to count," Keiko says, her deadpan expression and flat tone of voice relaying her overall exhaustion. With a round of tests approaching and loan application deadlines, she just didn't have the time to sit back and enjoy life with Yusuke._

"_Yeah yeah I can tell by the bags under your eyes that you're in no mood. Anyway, it's really important and you're the only smart person I know who explains things so I can understand. You know?"_

_Keiko smiles at the sheepish fidgets of her oldest and closest friend. Moments like these are when she is most grateful that she didn't give up on him for all those years. Moments like these are when her affection for him grows._

"_You could stand to mention it more often, but it's good to hear. If I can get through to you, maybe I have a chance at becoming a teacher after all," she responds, and the two share a mutual fond look before Yusuke sighs._

"_Genkai left me a letter in her will. I have it here if you wanna read it," he starts, handing over the pages and setting them before her. She peeks down at them but doesn't pick them up to read._

"_No one is in trouble, are they? No extra drama?"_

_He immediately brings up his hands up to assure her and to rid her of the concern crossing her face._

"_No no, not really. Nothing life-or-world-threatening. It's about Alexa," he says, causing her to tilt her head._

"_Alexa? We met and became friends after the funeral, and she was Genkai's last student, right?"_

"_Yeah. Her spirit energy went crazy way back with the demon tunnel stuff in Mushiyori."_

"_Oh. Those are days I don't like thinking about," Keiko mumbles, causing Yusuke to shrug with one shoulder. His second death and subsequent jaunt off to Demon World will never be a pleasant discussion topic between them, but he accepts it. She pulls up the papers and begins scanning the lines._

_He keeps his attention on her face as she does so, watching as her brows knit together in concentration. He knows she gets to the interesting and confusing part when her eyes widen. She finishes quickly and sets the letter down with her nose scrunched while she pouts slightly, her trademark thinking face. If it weren't over anything so important, Yusuke would tease her about it._

"_Genkai put things in a straight-forward manner, probably because she knew it was meant for you."_

_He rolls his eyes._

"_So what part of this is eating at you? Is it because she hinted at Alexa having secrets, because unfortunately Yusuke, pretty much everyone has those," she points out, watching as his face contorts in anger until he reins in his temper with a sigh of frustration._

"_No, it's not really that. I mean, yeah I'm kinda curious but like Grandma wrote I have to wait for Alexa to tell me. It's what she wants me to help her with that has me freaked, I dunno if I'm cut out for it!" He throws his hands up at his exclamation and then leans forward onto the table, stretching his arms across the table toward his girlfriend. Her expression softens at the gesture and takes his hands in hers, noting the pleased glint in his eyes when she does._

"_You'll be fine. If Genkai didn't think you could manage it, she wouldn't have asked. Ask Alexa at that meeting if we can stay at the temple during New Year's, and you can bring it up to her then. That way we have some time to figure out what you can say," she suggests, causing Yusuke to beam._

"_See I knew coming to you would be best! Thanks Keiko."_

_..._

**PRESENT TIME DEMON WORLD YEAH BOI**

...

Alexa doesn't pay attention to Yusuke's departure, nor the hesitation he seems to have before he walks out the door. Hiei has disappeared, so she isn't worried about having to deal with him. She's discussing with Kurama how to keep the com-pods safe when a small someone alights on her shoulder.

"What was the deal with your name earlier? Honestly you make it embarrassing to know you," the imp scoffs, but it only earns a wry grin from the human.

"You hang around Suzuka," she points out, and the imp gives an undignified snort.

"You forgot the 'beautiful' in front of my name again! Why, oh _why_ can't I get any respect from even my allies?"

"You also didn't answer Shishi's question, you just avoided it!"

Alexa and Kurama turn to cordially address their friends and now teammates.

"Suzuka, stop trying to make 'beautiful' happen. There are adjectives that could work better. And Rinku…"

She leans down to look the shorter kid demon in the eyes. He has a goading grin on his face and she mocks it with a silly expression of her own.

"… It's called minding your own business!"

Chu slaps her on the back with a peal of laughter and ignites the same from the rest of the group that approached.

After she straightens, the conversation topic drops and Alexa trades fist bumps with her friends and they start up talking over what they've been doing. Kurama quietly steps away and goes to find somewhere to wait for Alexa to finish her fun. To his surprise, his com-pod buzzes, lighting up with a small red exclamation point on the screen. He swipes the pod with his thumb to see the alert's details.

"_Assignment alert for KURAMA and HIEI. Meet in King's office, ASAP."_

Kurama is a bit puzzled by the immediate call but sets off at a brisk walk toward Enki's office anyway. He makes the split decision to not tell Alexa where he is, figuring that he won't take long. His mind is too preoccupied with the incumbent meeting and what he and Hiei could possibly be needed for.

...

Hiei got his message precisely before he could dash out from the city to vent his frustration in training. His com-pod wouldn't stop buzzing, even when he swiped the message away several times. He was going to ignore it and take his time just to show his disdain for being assigned to the force, but when the com-pod began wailing at a painfully high pitch, he relented.

Now he stands before the desk of Enki, with Kurama only a few feet away. The king himself is situated on his gargantuan office chair, reading glasses on his nose and a file in his hand. He has sealed the room with a silence spell. Hiei's first thought is that the first assignment might just be an assassination.

"What I'm about to impart to you is to stay between us. As I'm sure you're both well aware, Miss Orlov is the only human who holds a powerful position in the team, with no disrespect meant to Mister Kuwabara. While her presence is necessary, it also puts us in a difficult position. There are several reasons why she has to stay, and so it's been deemed crucial to put this plan into motion," Enki trades looks with the two before continuing. "Truthfully, if Miss Orlov is killed, we will be in a rough spot with the humans. Therefore, I am assigning Hiei as a guard to her even though I suppose in many ways she doesn't need protection... There are very real, very powerful threats to these negotiations, and many of them would do anything to collapse them. Because of this, Miss Orlov has quite the target on her back. With his Jagan and skillset as a fighter, as well as familiarity with Human World, Hiei is the most capable for the job. Kurama, you are to provide assistance, should Hiei become incapacitated. Is there anything I need to clarify?"

Enki's words have put Hiei from a bad mood into a worse one. The longer the king went on, the more red enters Hiei's vision, and the tighter his fists clench. How could no one else be eligible?! His rage does not go unnoticed by the other two in the room, but it does go ignored... Does it? Kurama glances with worry at the seething fire demon, then turns almost pleading eyes to Enki. The king raises his eyebrows and allows his confusion to show. Kurama takes this as his cue to speak.

"Alexa– Miss Orlov– and Hiei have met in the past, and… Well, they're not on remotely good terms."

The admittance makes Hiei turn a sneer in his ally's direction and Enki exhale slowly as if to calm his own frayed nerves.

"Then they'll need to start getting along, at least to the point where Alexa stays safe and unaware of your protection. Your mission isn't to be friends," he responds, the finality in his voice serving as a dismissal. The spell is released, and the two fighters leave with a boiling silence between them.

As they head back to the meeting room the atmosphere becomes too stifling. Kurama breaks the silence with as casual a voice as he can muster.

"One must wonder what the secret motivations are behind keeping Alexa safe."

All he receives in answer is the typical incorrigible snarl.

Now Kurama dreads the next interaction he must have with Alexa and Hiei, as it won't be nearly as entertaining as earlier. How is he going to make this work without getting his head bitten off? He can't help but feel that the universe is giving him a swift kick of retribution for his previous pranks.

* * *

**What goes around comes around, Kurama. I once pranked my older sister into thinking I cut my hand open badly. You'll never GUESS what happened literally two minutes later... **

**What can I say, I'm bad with sharp things!**

**Thanks to those who are reading, favoriting, following, whatevering! It's a pleasure. If there are any glaring errors, anything constructive you have to say, or kind words to share, drop a review! No worries if not though, I ain't writing for the review count (or any kind of count). If at least one person gains enjoyment from this, I'm happy.**

**Til Next Time,**

**-A**


	7. May the Force be with You

**Hello there! It's been the criz-naziest lately, full of twists and turns and by god the murder hornets are WHERE I LIVE FFS**

**... Maybe they're makai insects...? Sure sounds like it.**

**Anyway. Yo! I'm here. For all you know I'm immortal. This chapter title, for future reference, was posted on May 4th, 2020. Timely.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**-May the Force be with You-**

Alexa bids adieu to her old training buddies and once they've gone out the door she begins an energetic scan of the room to find Kurama to set off toward home. Joy turns to panic as the distinct red hair is nowhere to be seen. A flood of dread pours from the base of her skull down her spine and flushing her face with heat. Suddenly the room is stifling, and she has to leave but has no idea where to go.

"Was I supposed to follow him? Did he forget about me? Was I supposed to go with someone else?"

Her thoughts run wild without the presence of anyone recognizable. Staying in place would be wisest, but what if the room needed to be used for something else? She decides with a large breath to go wait in the hall, as it would be easier for Kurama to locate her again should he remember that she has no idea where anything is in Demon World yet.

Once out in the hall, she fidgets and checks her com-pod. Then her smartphone. Then glances down both ends of the hallway. Servants go about their usual, moving messages throughout the castle and making sure everything stays clean. Alexa continues her cycle of checking her pod, phone, and hallway until someone who is most definitely not a servant rounds the corner to her right and begins to walk toward her.

Alexa prays that the tall, intimidating, orange-haired woman pays her no mind. Being human, albeit a strong human, is still a huge disadvantage. Demons of enormous strength traipse around like their power is ordinary in this realm. While her friends tend to reassure her that she can hold her own against all of them, she knows that they're just being nice. She still has a lot to learn, too much to learn for someone with no teacher. Her mind shrills in alarm when the woman stops ahead of her and tilts her head Alexa's way.

"What's a human doing here? And unsupervised, no less."

Alexa stiffens and cries out in her mind for help repeatedly in hopes that ANY number of powerful allies in her corner would feel it… Then she remembers the only mind-reader type of individual she knows of is someone who despises her.

"Oh, this is bad. Kurama you're fuckin' dead to me."

The demon woman notices Alexa's nervousness, already knowing why the human is present but enjoying the silent meltdown she's witnessing anyway.

"I'm uh… I'm Alexa. Here uh, um, for the meeting. Uh…Task force. Um, Waiting," Alexa stutters out, her instincts shrieking that while the woman's energy is expertly masked, she is not to be trifled with. She is ancient, and powerful, and could squash her like the pitiful bug she is. Alexa jumps when a hand is held out to her. The human looks from the offered hand up into the half-artificial face of the woman, who is undoubtedly amused.

"I'm Mukuro. Your shirt is referencing Star Wars, isn't it?"

Alexa dumbly shakes the demon's hand, drifting her eyes down to her shirt that has the Rebel Alliance symbol printed on it. She'd been told to wear something comfortable and not to worry about appearing professional in the human sense, so she chose this comfy dark gray shirt with the dark symbol on the front and dark blue jeans, wearing her trusty pink Converse shoes. When she brings her eyes back up, she nods slowly before her brain finally starts turning its gears.

"Yeah, yeah it is. Being frank I didn't think anyone would recognize it here, but it's a comfy shirt," Alexa replies, dropping her hand to her side to grip the hem again once their handshake is finished. For her, everything is tense and uncomfortable, even more so because of her senses telling her that Mukuro is strong.

"If it's easy to fight in, then I don't see a problem with it. I like to import human media occasionally, although now that the barrier is down, I see that I have much to watch and catch up on. Despite their frailty and weakness, humans can be quite creative. You are not what I expected the human on this task force to look like. Being frank," Mukuro replies, echoing Alexa's word choice in a light teasing manner. Alexa is well aware that despite the topic of conversation, she is being examined, analyzed, and summed right up.

"Well, by human standards no one would expect someone like me cuz I'm, you know..." Alexa trails off with a nervous huff of laughter, only to be met with that intense, enigmatic stare. "Uh, heh never mind I guess. By demon standards, other than the whole 'being human' thing, anyone could be extremely powerful, you know? I got in a spat with someone earlier because I let my temper and nerves get the best of me and I was lucky he was weaker than I am. I hope I don't offend somehow by saying this, but like, even though we just met I can tell that you're eras and echelons ahead of me. You know?" Alexa rambles, although she squeaks as she realizes what she's saying. Her face heats up and her throat closes. This may just be the one trip up that draws a close to not only this chapter in her journey, but the whole damn book.

Everything drops to mere confusion when she hears Mukuro begin to chuckle.

"I understand. And you're not afraid of being eaten?"

The sudden question makes Alexa turn her eyes down, although Mukuro sees that she isn't particularly disturbed by it. Instead, she is trying to sum up her feelings on the subject, having already had those facts about demons given to her.

"Um… Well, I don't really want to be eaten. But I find it more agreeable? Uh, agreeable, if a demon eats me than if a human eats me. Like, I get it. But I'm not really afraid, since demons are just as intelligent and capable of rational decision-making as I am," Alexa answers, practically shivering at possibly giving the wrong response but telling the truth all the same. She gives a half-hearted shrug to attempt a casual air.

"I see. I've never cared about or liked humans before, but you and Mister Urameshi seem to have a bit of a case building in their defense. The next time you are back here, please find me in my moving fortress that patrols the border. I would very much like to fight you," Mukuro states, giving a mysterious smile and bringing her hand up to wave slightly. She turns away and off she strides. Alexa is frozen in shock, eyes wide as the words tumble inside her mind. Mukuro is gone before she can think to ask her what exactly she's talking about, panicking at the thought of fighting such an obviously powerful creature.

"I thought things were going pretty okay but I guess not. This is super bad and Kurama you are still SUPER DEAD TO ME."

Fear spreads into her system and threatens to make her cave into tears, hyperventilation, and loss of music control. The shutdown postpones when she hears Kurama calling her name.

"Alexa, sorry to keep you waiting!"

She turns such an exhausted, dead-eyed expression his way that Kurama inwardly curses ever thinking about leaving her alone. And, right on cue to make matters worse, is Hiei. Drowsy eyes become alight with emotion once again.

"Ooooooh no, no don't tell me he's tagging along to go home…" she groans, hoping against the evidence that this is not the case. Hiei is just as displeased as she is, his assignment still causing tumultuous waves of anger flow through him.

"Ah, yes, yes… Because of his abilities and past experience in the Human World, he'll be living at the temple with you, and he's also your permanent partner on all missions."

Silence. Kurama attempted to make it sound pleasant, but it's more like a bomb has dropped. He knows he has only seconds before the explosions begin.

"I don't seem to remember anything about being her permanent mission partner," Hiei hisses, his voice low and venomous, energy flaring to show his ever-mounting disdain.

"Why does it have to be him, anyway? Why can't it be literally ANYONE else?! Why can't it be you?!" Alexa asks right after, the heat in her voice rising with her volume. Her face flushes and changes to horror when a classic lyric from Three Days Grace pops right out in its righteous appropriate fury. She takes a hurried deep breath to regain control and lock down the music, but the damage is done. The atmosphere between the three is stiflingly awkward. Alexa stares down at her feet, hands clenching at her sides. Kurama sighs.

"Hiei, it's obvious that that's what Enki meant by assigning you to stay there, I caught on to the insinuation easily. And Alexa, you know that Yusuke, Kuwabara and I are all leading different lives. It was the best option. You aren't required to become friends," he explains, his patience wearing thin. Once they get back to the Human World, he plans to dump them at the temple and head back home. He has work on Monday, and while his stepfather owns the company, he can't be a slouch.

Alexa forgets herself and drops her head back and releases a petulant moan that holds reminiscence to any given three-year-old. Hiei grunts, having accepted his lot. He can still hope that somehow she either has an accident or turns out to be a demon. He'll fulfill his mission, but only, only, only because not doing so would be more trouble than it's worth. He could handle anything that aims to get rid of her. Who would want to pick a fight with someone like her anyway?

The trio makes their way out of the castle in an uncomfortable silence, with Hiei resolving to do the bare minimum, Alexa bouncing between stewing over her challenge from the mysterious Mukuro and the impending partnership with Hiei, and Kurama praying that any further drama that occurs does so after he drops them at the temple.

* * *

Reptilius scampers along the hallways of the Demon World Castle, effortlessly blending in among the many different servants who busy themselves around him. Despite his sneaking around and suspect behavior, he is nothing but loyal to the king. But before Enki, there were three major powers in his world, and thus he too had different loyalties back then. This same sense of duty to the leader who had liberated his clan ages ago spurs him in his actions now. He got a read on the human, Alexa. Now his old master's curiosity could have an answer, and should they decide to return, so be it…

... ... ...

Alexa and Hiei, for all their dislike for one another, are unwittingly united in their current feelings toward Kurama. Shortly after arriving at Genkai's old temple, Kurama made himself scant. Something about needing to catch the last train and being unable to wait until morning to get back home. The two left behind couldn't stop him and his bullshit excuse from leaving them to deal with each other. This only fed their silence. Their disdain. And of course, their avoidance.

She's inside the domestic portion of the set of buildings, the place she has called home for nearly two years, still stewing. She didn't bother showing Hiei to a room or even talk to him an hour ago. She figures that if he's so great he can sleep in the woods. He certainly didn't follow her or attempt to make peace or really do anything but glare at the ground! She moves to the kitchen, mulling over how exactly she could get along enough with someone who doesn't hide his contempt for her.

Her music emanates from her, although her energy is not in its belligerent form. While meditative, Alexa is still focusing in on her cooking, careful to not let anything burn like she usually does. Her rice is still in the cooker, sitting in warming, while she waits for her vegetables to steam in a pan on the stovetop. A simple meal, but Genkai once had her subsist on tea and one bite of rice a day for a month during training. She would survive.

She looks out the small kitchen window, focusing firmly on her new housemate. New partner. Obviously Hiei already knows his way around the temple compound and surrounding lands. The large part of her that utterly dislikes Hiei says to leave him to his resources and let him settle his own meals. The part that makes her the "mom friend" and believes in being kind to everyone whispers that she should at least offer some of her meal to him.

Her lips pout as her thoughts conflict.

"Kurama said that we don't have to be friends, but I can at least try and get to a level where he doesn't look at me like he wants me to drop dead. I hate that I have to make the first move though."

She sighs in frustration and heads to the shoji doors that lead out to the veranda and outer courtyard. She peeks her head out to see if he might be there still, but figures that as he's so fantastic at everything in the world he'll be able to hear her anyway.

"Uhhhh Hiei? Hey, if you're out there, could you listen up for a sec?" she yells out, uncertainty painting her voice. Her music is low enough to not echo around the compound along with her call.

"Must you yell? I'm right behind you and capable of hearing your annoying voice at its normal volume."

Hiei's snide and grumpy response makes Alexa jump badly, rousing curses as she turns to face him. He's leaning against the wall to her right on the inside of the room, arms crossed. She brings down the music and calms herself from the initial desire to strangle the man. She begins again with a clearly forced smile.

"I made more rice and veggies than I need. I'm no master chef but something is better than nothing and I might as well share," she says, her voice as tight as the grip on the hem of her shirt. Her shirt is showing the stress of the day already, the cloth full of minor stretches in the shape of her fingers.

He rolls his eyes and gets off the wall.

"You're a fool; how typical. Just tell me what room I should use and you won't bother me further," he demands, narrowing his eyes to up his intimidation game. He watches Alexa puff out her cheeks, physically stopping the snappy retort that she dearly wants to let loose. Instead, she swallows and keeps control of her temper.

"Okay. That's fair. There's a room you can use, c'mon."

His glare lessens and he follows her as she heads back. He can respect anyone who at least tries not to be a complete pain. Their silence is no less uncomfortable than before, however, and Alexa eases her music back into a relaxing volume. It prompts Hiei to think back to when he caught a glimpse of her music fighting ability, leading him to conclude that the music being released isn't meant for battle. A curious power to be sure, one more unique than any he's ever encountered. He's even a bit surprised that such a power can be found in a human, but even that won't carry her far for long. Not if she desires to compare with the strongest humans he's met in the past.

"So… linen closet is at the end of the hall for towels and stuff. Feel free to take whatever you need, just keep it organized. I dunno if you have any soaps but you're free to use mine, for what it's worth."

Hiei almost gives a short bark of a laugh at that.

"And here you go. Futon and blankets are in the closet. Enjoy the view," she deadpans, unenthusiastically gesturing inside the traditional Japanese room. He grunts, brushing past her. Before she can call out his rudeness, he slides the door shut with a slam. He gains a small sense of satisfaction from her disgusted growl and the sound of her stomping her way back to the kitchen.

She releases a wail of disappointment when she checks on her vegetables and finds them to be soggy and overcooked. Secretly she curses herself for not taking them off the heat before she went to attempt decent conversation with Hiei. Shoveling rice and limp veggies into a bowl with a forceful petulance, it only causes her to drop her spoon on the floor. A wave of rage flows through her mouth as she grabs up the spoon and slams it into the sink.

Unbeknownst to Alexa, Hiei has slinked back out and watches her from the corner of the room farthest from her position. He listens to her muttering rant and to her escalating music, which has gone from a soothing orchestral piece to one more fierce.

"Powers that are tied to her emotions, it's like watching the detective all over again. I'll have to watch her fight. Training is useless if you're unsuited for battle in the first place," he muses, still unimpressed.

Hiei keeps watching until she happens to turn around in a furious gesturing to the ceiling; all while questioning when "death will arrive on his white unicycle to give the tenderest mercy one being could ever give another of her misfortune." In her movement around, her eyes meet his for a split second before she continues her twirl. While his mouth is slightly open in complete confusion at her display, her face is increasingly becoming redder and redder as she whips back around once she comprehends what she glimpsed.

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STANDING THERE?!"

He ignores her indignant screech to get to the kitchen and examine her meal. Sure enough, the vegetables are pitifully overcooked, and he can smell the salty seasoning she's added to them. The rice is still okay, but that's not much of an accomplishment for anyone. Resigning to have just rice, he finds the cupboards with the rice bowls and scoops himself some. Alexa watches him with a face filling with more and more indignation as the seconds pass. Even with noting her questioning upturned hands, Hiei waits until he walks past her to answer.

"You offered dinner. Try to make more edible food next time, without so much salt."

He enters his room after leaving her to steam in the kitchen. He admits to himself that she is far more entertaining to anger than Kuwabara, though he knows soon that that will get boring. No use training with someone so far beneath his own skill level either, though with the seething waves of energy he's picking up from her, she keeps putting the idea in his head that if trained properly, she could be a serious contender.

"Ha." He waves away the thought. The old psychic has passed on and left Alexa with no teacher to get her to those powerful heights. It has nothing to do with him. He's merely stuck babysitting once again, a job he deplores even more than the last time he got stuck in Human World.

For the umpteenth time that day, Hiei mildly places hope in something dire happening to Alexa so he can return home. Home: where no one waits.

* * *

**So like. Mukuro. She's awesome. I love her. Strong female role model. It's totes canon that she's a Star Wars fan, btw. As if I needed a reason to love her more.**

**Hiei wants Alexa to drop dead, which is pretty much his default setting toward everyone so maybe she's not in the muck as much as she thinks. Not like Kurama is anyway heheheheh.**

**Thanks to those reading, if I messed up anywhere after my somewhat meticulous combing, kindly tell me so I may fix it (I miss the weirdest things in editing I swear!) No worries though, I'm a go-with-the-flow author. I'll update til it's done. **

**Til Next Time,**

**-A**


	8. Kept on Her Toe(sucker)

**Sup Fothermuckers, 'tis I, Aw/T! I've been real off about writing in general (I am newly diagnosed ADHD and am as yet untreated thanks to this viral business), but I'm still trying to get my groove back on! **

**Please Enjoy!**

* * *

**-Kept on Her Toe(sucker)-**

With dinner and her daily meditation afterward complete, Alexa changes into basketball shorts, wrangles herself into a sports bra and pulls a small generic blue athletic shirt over it. In the dying sunlight she sets up her laptop and puts it on the courtyard bench, going to a Tai Chi website. She can't sense if Hiei watches her or not, but his earlier slights only serve to remind her that she needs to be calm. Losing her cool and letting her emotions run her would be disastrous, especially with her current predicament.

After following her routine videos to focus her energy and calm her emotions, Alexa turns off her computer with a nervous sigh. Before Genkai passed, they were working on a hatchling technique, one that combines her music energy with the Spirit Wave. With the courtyard now only lit by solar-powered lanterns around the edge, she takes a deep breath and slowly lets loose more and more of her energy. As she does so, a song reverberates from it, and her body shifts minutely to match every beat and subdivision that drums in the air. The song is at a loud volume. Nothing but the music, her energy, and her training are on her mind.

Then, the bass kicks in on the song and she dips down into the beginning of a sweeping kick to match it. On she goes into a martial arts dance that's ingrained in her muscles from the arduous training of the past year and a half. Front to back, front to back, front to back… Once she has the routine to a certain point, she repeats the sweeping kick but adds the Spirit Wave, energy visibly forming in an arc where her foot cleaves the air. Although it would suffice as an attack should it hit an opponent, the short-lived streams are merely by-products of the maneuver she is trying to build.

It's at the same moment, just like all the other times, that the attack fails. This attempt has her flying back from the accidental explosion of energy from her hand, the loss of control for that amount being used rearing its ugly head. Alexa grunts in pain as she skids on the ground for yards before being stopped by a sturdy tree at the edge of the temple grounds. Coupling with the strain of her technique, the blow to her middle from striking the tree causes her to cough and sputter. Tears squeeze from the corners of her eyes, mixing in with the sweat on her face.

"_I hate this!"_

She spits curses once she has breath enough to do so, although she is still curled in a fetal position clutching her stomach. Her tears of pain have given way to pitiful sobs of frustration and lingering grief. This leads to whirling thoughts about all her life's mistakes and pains, and for the next ten minutes she lies there, burning out. Once she manages some sense of calm, she pulls herself up. She hunches her back from the pain she still feels, trudges to pick up her computer, and retreats to her bedroom. Alexa keeps her head down in shame, knowing full well that Genkai is somewhere in the heavens feeling disappointment at her lack of progress.

Alexa also keeps her head down to avoid the chance of discovering that Hiei witnessed her entire blowout.

With leaden thoughts and gray heart, she allows herself a calming lullaby as she drops onto her futon. Still too warm from her work to cover with blankets and too exhausted to care about changing clothes, she drifts to sleep with the words of a melancholy song echoing in her ears.

* * *

It didn't take long for Mukuro to hear that Hiei is assigned as partner to the human fighter. She actually finds it quite amusing, as her ex second-in-command seems to have the epitome of what he considers bad luck. And yet, she can't help but wonder if the human, Alexa, will tell Hiei about her challenge.

Anyone who knows Mukuro well enough understands how she fights, how she engages different people, and how lofty her powers are. Although muted slightly by the calm she's recently attained, it was almost… endearing, when Alexa showed friendliness through her obvious fear. While conversation is interesting, Mukuro always gets a better measure of someone through fighting, because it's all she has ever known. Hiei connected with her easily, having been the same way. Perhaps a true human could connect this way as well.

Alexa Orlov holds Demon World's attention, for now. Mukuro is aware that even Yomi is probing for information on her.

"Lord Mukuro, forgive me for interrupting your walk, but I heard about your challenge to that human woman. You honestly can't think that she's any match for you."

Mukuro pauses, not giving her former second-in-command the indulgence of a glance backward. Kirin takes her silence as an invitation to continue.

"She is a human, not nearly as strong as Urameshi. I hear that in your encounter with her, she was completely terrified," Kirin recounts, to which Mukuro laughs dryly.

"Resorting to gossip in this peaceful lull, I see. Though you have survived this long, I suggest you start learning better habits if you desire to continue on in this world. The reasoning for my challenge are mine, and those who understand certainly do not question."

* * *

A delightfully peaceful morning full of chirping birds in the slowly brightening sunlight greets the mountains, where a temple sits nestled in dense forests full of life. The promise of a beautiful day kisses the land, all is gentle, and serene, and natural, and supernatural, and vaguely terrifying, and haunted, and dude, how could anyone _live _here?, and quaint…

Hiei springs up, energy spiking at the horrendously loud screech that fills the compound. He'd been snoozing in a courtyard tree after his early morning warmups when it started. On and on and on, like a siren of oncoming disaster. It abruptly stops once every bird and animal has evacuated the area.

His ears pulse at the return of the silence. Although he has no idea what produced the noise, he is sure that it all has to do with Alexa. While tempted to find her and give the idiot a piece of his mind, he hates the idea of giving her any form of leverage. Even fools can come across something clever intermittently. Kuwabara's survival is proof of that. So he settles back onto the branch, warily keeping a watch for Alexa to appear.

"Hey Hiei, sorry about the wakeup wherever you are! That's my alarm, Genkai made it for me!"

Her explanation only raises questions. Why the hell would anyone need something like that, and how the hell did she know that he was in the vicinity? He could've been off checking the perimeter of the old woman's lands (lands he refuses to accept as belonging to Alexa now), or getting into an intense battle, or training, or a myriad of other things. His energy is impossible to track, especially with her meager training. It only serves to aggravate him, as it almost appears as if she read his thoughts, despite it being impossible. Not to mention she formerly insulted such powers.

Twenty minutes after her miserable chime, the birds have been coaxed back to the trees, a wayward ghost may be roaming right outside the border of the blessed land again, and Alexa emerges from the temple with a backpack on and a weary, squinting face. She yawns widely, taking a swig from a large jug of water before scanning the courtyard. After a minute of her searching she shrugs and begins jogging to the west toward the beach. Once she is out of sight, Hiei hops to the ground, knowing her search for him had been fruitless. He does appreciate that she left and didn't bother him. Just a little bit though. Nothing near enough to ever get him to see her as acceptable.

Time passes… more time passes…. How long has it been? A couple hours given the position of the sun. No signs of any trouble, but the tranquility bugs him. What is taking her so long? Yusuke always complains when he goes out into the woods, although Yusuke tends to complain about most things. Given their many similarities, Hiei assumed Alexa might be the same way. He growls at his mistake; he has been planning on her return so he could pester her for food. He's never been one for cooking, and all the food in the kitchen requires the use of human machines. He doesn't like the thought of having to go hunt and fish and make a fire whenever he's hungry.

Resigned, Hiei sprints in the direction Alexa trotted to earlier that day, catching onto a faint energy signature that has to be hers. It isn't spiking or fuming. No battle. Hiei can't think of any way for her to have any battles of her own yet anyway, but he feels relief only because it means that she won't have distractions from getting him lunch.

It's about halfway to his destination, with her energy as his waypoint, that it surges.

Hiei grunts in confusion. "_How can she possibly be getting attacked?" _He still can't sense anything demonic or otherwise that is responsible. He increases his speed dramatically. Letting her die so soon would be too much trouble, and he's a bit on the curious side on what is slipping under his radar.

... ... ...

Alexa can already hear the jeering of her deceased master in her head for being taken by surprise. She can practically feel all the yells of "you idiot!" and "dumbass" and "you're an even bigger moron than that dimwit!" Yes, Genkai is surely raging in the heavens over the dreadful performance Alexa is putting on right now.

Alexa dodges one of her burly attackers with a mere hop to her left, keeping her eyes out for any others who want to charge her or decide to pull guns. She can tell her adversaries are human and given their attack patterns she wonders if they have any business attacking her with spirit energy so low. Either they're masking it masterfully or she's above their paygrade.

"Hey, you weirdos haven't hit me yet and I suggest not pushing me further. It'll only make your inevitable doctor visit worse," she chides, although it's more in the hopes that anyone with some hidden bit of power would just call her out on her cockiness. She gets nothing but semi-frustrated grunts and glares from the men around her.

"Time to just get it over with then," she mumbles under her breath. A fast tempo Eurobeat blasts from her body and she shoots off with speed. One goes down with a kick to the middle, another with a jab at his kidneys. The third, a punch in the jaw, same with the fourth, and for the fifth? Well…

"**Shitabrick!" **she screeches, promptly faceplanting to eat sand. Her legs are tangled beneath her, the music dropped to a pathetic hum of a video game "game over" track. The fifth and final perp doesn't waste the few seconds despite the strange events and squarely aims his gun.

'**ShHHK!'**

Metal slides easily through metal.

Hiei stands before the man, with his now completely useless gun, and holds his sword lazily to the side.

"Who knew that I'd have to begin so quickly. Leave, human. She's obviously not worth your time or money," he spits, glaring at the man for oh so many reasons.

"Ugh, Hiei stand down, I have it handled. Who are you people?!" Alexa yells, brushing sand from her hair and face and spitting it from her mouth.

The man snarls something in a language Alexa recognizes as something with Slavic roots and then mutters something angrily into a radio on his shoulder.

There's an awkward silence –made even more awkward because Alexa indignantly plays "Girl from Ipanema"– as the trio waits for something to happen. Then, in the distance, the sound of a chopper from the south.

Alexa and Hiei watch warily as more foreign operatives pick up the team members, all heavily armed but not showing any hostile signs to the two fighters. Soon enough, they're all flying away.

Once the sound of the chopper is but a dull buzz, Alexa turns to Hiei.

"Sooooo…. That was nice and weird. You didn't have to save me, I would've been fine– "

"–what the hell is wrong with you? Those humans were pitifully weak, you could have killed them faster than it took me to get here," Hiei interrupts, keeping his sword out and brandishing it at her. Alexa puts her hands on her hips, music internalizing and spirit energy readying for a fight once again.

"You're right, but I'm not a _murderer_. It was probably just some UN tickle to see if I'm worthy of the money they're dumping into hiring me," she says with a shrug. Her nonchalance makes him snarl and he sheathes his sword. Despite this, the tension between the two remains palpable. Neither move. The sound of the tide gently receding is accompanied by a quiet video game track that contextually is meant to signify enemy presence. Hiei doesn't know this but finds it fitting all the same.

Alexa clears her throat.

"I have a feeling neither of us are going to last long if we don't get down to business and just fight. So how about it? Feeling generous enough to step down from thine pedestal to fight a diminutive human such as I?"

Hiei leers at her, unappreciative of her flippant tone as she theatrically holds her arms out.

His retort is interrupted by the harsh chirping of two com-pods. Alexa mutters a naughty word, startled out of the now-ruined moment. Both fighters fish out their pods, Hiei's from his pocket and Alexa's from her bag on a driftwood log a few feet to her left. She is far more excited in reaching for it, rushing and rummaging to see the impending message.

Her "partner" harbors no such feeling. As he reads his message first, he already knows it's not a mission summons. He watches Alexa's shoulders sag in disappointment. She turns abruptly, tight smile on her face with that same disappointment still in her eyes. She holds up her pod.

"I was right: Test from the UN. Looks like we both passed, so I suppose congrats are in order," she jibes, to which he rolls his eyes. He pockets his com-pod and readies himself to accept her former challenge, only to be interrupted by her sighing and swinging her bag up on her back and grabbing her water bottle.

"Last one to the temple is a toe-sucker."

Her neutral-sounding childish taunt makes him inwardly seethe.

"_Avoiding the fight she challenged me to? This woman is a joke."_

He flits away from his spot, certain that his speed outmatches hers.

* * *

"He's not going to be happy."

A brown-haired man shifts in his seat, a frown creasing his perfectly young face. Staring straight ahead, he brings delicate, unscarred fingers up to absent-mindedly play with the ponytail draped over his left shoulder. After mulling over a possible response, he sighs.

"_They _have been alive for millennia. It makes them more patient than you'd think."

The older woman standing behind him crosses her arms, narrowing icy eyes in contempt for the man and his youthful appearance and correct reply.

"That human who first opened a hole should've been dealt with, Shinabu or whatever. Look how things are now because they let him go."

"It's pronounced 'Shi-_no_-bu', and the man was about to die, what damage could he do before the portal got sealed by Japan's Reikai? All we need do now is follow orders like always." The man's response earns an unintelligible snarl from the woman, but she dares not lash out more. This is her commander, after all. Her techniques are rumored to be mere simplicity to his prowess, as much as he apparently loathes to show it.

"Then what _are _our orders, Tenrou?"

The man shifts, turning deep brown eyes to her in scrutiny. She keeps still, having gotten used to seeing that gaze from him, with his eyes that are too large to be quite human. He fiddles with his hair a few moments longer before dropping his hand with an echoing smack to his lap. The woman flinches. He seems satisfied with her reaction and smiles.

"Mrs. Albrecht, you have always been such a steadfast pain. Keep observing from the human side, but don't intercept any messages yet. Making ourselves known now could bring our downfall and endanger humanity even more," he directs, flicking his hand at her in dismissal. With the urgency of someone who desires no more than to get away, Mrs. Albrecht leaves the commander to his live satellite feed of Earth from space. The large screen takes up one wall of the room, usually used for organization meetings. But, as of this moment, stillness. Silence. It allows him to appreciate what he so steadfastly desires to protect.

As the satellite drifts, the image shows his native land.

"I will be returning there soon, no doubt. Entity will require intimate details," Tenrou muses, the sound of his voice muted by the thick atmosphere of the quiet room.

DEvision's commander stands with a start, lip quivering. He shakes his hair out of his face, for a moment relinquishing himself to his instincts. Once finished, he resolves to at least soak up some sunlight on his next reconnoiter into the fast-paced world of humans.

He trots easily from the room, into the unflattering lights that draw too much attention to the short, coarse whiskers on his face that he's tried too many times to shave off. It paints him too pale. Not like the sunshine. Sunshine is the best…

He huffs at letting his thoughts get distracted.

"Urameshi Yusuke will undoubtedly be my first target, along with Minamino Shuuichi and Kuwabara Kazuma," he mutters, frowning in disgust at Kuwabara's name. His pace hastens, the click of his boots pattering down the hallway.

"_Ugh, cat people."_

* * *

**Props to that ghost wandering just outside the blessing zone at Genkai's temple. I vibe with that ghost. **

**Thank you to those who are enjoying so far and have followed/favorited/reviewed! If I mucked up somewhere, or if you have any encouragement, or whatever you'd like to say (as long it's constructive/polite), review! As always, no pressure though. I know how it be, I'm a fic reader too. **

**Til Next Time,**

**-A**


	9. Yusuke Feeds a Dog

**Hello, and welcome back! Being honest, I got stuck on all of my writing. My focus has been directed elsewhere, but now it's coming back. What better way to celebrate than to post a chapter? **

**With that, enjoy!**

* * *

Three days. It's been three days and all tight, tense, tightening tenseness. Alexa avoids Hiei by zoning out into her attempts at training, which amounts to a bunch of yoga and Tai Chi with a sprinkle of long jogs and just a pinch of martial arts dance fighting in her signature style. She can't tell when Hiei watches or not, but figures that he must, at least intermittently. He probably isn't interested in her emotion-controlling measures, but the dance fighting must be at least a little intriguing. Maybe. Perhaps not.

Still.

She's increasingly nervous about having to fight Mukuro, much less an attempt at sparring with Hiei. While it's something that will inevitably happen given their relative proximity, she just can't. Not right now. Totally unable. Why? Who knows.

It doesn't help that any of her work on the technique she's developing has completely stalled. It took totally shredding her knee open skidding across the stone courtyard for Alexa to give up attempting it without someone to train with at the very least. Hiei certainly isn't going to help her.

Now she sits. Time for some regular relaxation. She doesn't feel like watching anything. Nor like playing any trusty video games. Despite not wanting to spar or work on her new attack, she can't find motivation to do anything fun either.

"Frick meeeee," she groans, exasperation taking hold. She flops to lie on her back, taking in the new angle of the living room but eventually focusing in on the unmoving ceiling fan.

"How did she stand being here fifty years alone? Gawd I even went out to that creepy haunted marsh yesterday and the smell still isn't off my shoes…" she tells the fan.

"She was a far more competent, interesting person than you're proving to be."

Instead of being completely startled like every other interaction they've had, Alexa minimizes her flinch and keeps her gaze fixed to the ceiling.

"You dunno jack about me, Hiei. Say," she rolls herself to a sitting position facing him, "you're a demon right? All demonic from Demon World with all that demonic knowledge tucked under all that demonic hair?"

A scathing look is all the response she gets.

"I choose to take that as a strong 'maybe.' Anyway, could you, perhaps, out of any sliver of gratitude for keeping you fed and housed, tell me about Mukuro?" she asks. Her terrible nonchalant act is ruined by her twisting her shirt in one hand, and he crosses his arms, unconvinced. To his relief, she's too busy being self-absorbed to notice his eye twitch at Mukuro's name. But… he is pretty curious…

"And just how in the hell did someone like Mukuro ever concern you?" he questions, his voice just as clipped and harsh as ever. Or so he thought he sounded, but Alexa stops her wringing and furrows her brows seeming to realize something before quickly masking it and paying him undue attention. Eyes widened to show her interest and a too wide, close-mouthed smile to show her anticipation.

"I met her. Now spill, I could tell she's super mega tough, but you would know better, being from there," she answers, her annoying expression unfaltering. Even with the weird silence. And the awkward shift. And the eyeroll.

Finally he relents, seeing no reason to beware any ulterior motives for her question.

"Mukuro was one of the three demon kings, until Yusuke called for the tournament and threw the former system away. As such, she's immensely powerful. Why did she talk to you, what did she say?"

Alexa's face briefly betrays that she gathered, somehow, more information than what he just told her. It irks him, and as such he unfolds his arms and strides to her. He holds her gaze as he leans over her menacingly, causing her to lie back on the floor. She detaches her hands from her shirt and slides them up to cradle the back of her head.

"What?" she asks defensively, averting her eyes.

"You know something else. You were talking about me weren't you?" he hisses, allowing his energy to flare up slightly to intimidate. He's satisfied when she flinches.

"And why would we? This was before I knew you were assigned to me, and I'm pretty damn sure our lives don't revolve around you… Buuuut if you must know, she challenged me to a fight when I'm next in Demon World, even though I thought our conversation was going well!"

Hiei opens his mouth to scald her with rage but her words catch his breath in his throat. A fight? He wasn't even mentioned and Mukuro challenged her _to a fight?_

Alexa goes between looking nervous and curious about this strange reaction. She was expecting vitriol. Treachery. Scathing insults. Not this uncharacteristic flabbergasted speechlessness, which she feels further supports her growing theory that she'll ask Kurama about when she's forgiven him.

Hiei leaves.

She hoists herself up to a sitting position and heaves a frustrated sigh.

"Guess I'll have to get the dirt from somewhere else. This sorta explains why he's so pissy though."

She thinks back on all her encounters with Hiei and grimaces.

"Or maybe he's always been that way. Never mind. YouTube binge it is!"

As she bustles about, Hiei sits high up in a tree at the edge of the courtyard. Knowing these new details makes something different. He can't stop thinking about it. Mukuro challenging that _human _to a fight? More specifically _that _human?! How much of a good impression did Alexa make on her? Or could it possibly be that Mukuro is merely attempting a roundabout way of vexing him?

He dismisses that pitiful thought and curses his own idiocy. She's far above being petty.

He glances in the direction of Alexa's laughter.

"If you want to fight the human, be my guest. It won't be as interesting as you somehow think," he mumbles, sliding down to lounge against the trunk of the tree while folding his arms behind his head.

Only one thing keeps him from falling asleep, to his annoyance. Those eyes of hers… Not only did she figure something out, but she was empathetic to whatever it was. Her distinct, obtrusive cackle peals through the air again.

…Time to shift to another tree.

* * *

Urameshi Yusuke is a more complex man than even he realizes. While his Spirit Detective days are over, he still has many difficult choices ahead of him. What he thought would be the toughest turned out to be a no-brainer: Returning home and figuring things out with Keiko and his mom.

"Man I dunno what to order, menus are confusing!" he complains, though to no one in particular. He's home alone today, Keiko and Kuwabara are full on preparing for university and his mom is on her own schedule. As such, Keiko isn't around to help with ordering supplies for his ramen stand. If school had ever been anything of interest, he might feel a bit of regret for dropping out.

Who was he kidding, he SUCKS at math.

Enough time passes hmming and hahing over money totals that he ends up scrambling to get to his cart on time for his self-imposed hours. Cussing himself out for wasting time, he trips on an undone shoelace while dashing down the stairs of his apartment building.

Although it didn't _really _hurt, he lies at the bottom on his back wondering if it's worth the trouble to keep the shop open. If he didn't love Keiko as much he does, he'd definitely not open up shop today. But he promised himself.

He closes his eyes and sucks a breath through his nose.

He jolts up when he feels a wet nose sniff his cheek.

"Whoa!"

The dog startles, backing away. Yusuke eyes the dirty Akita. Thin, no collar, probably a sandy color under the grime.

"Sorry 'bout that. I'm kind of in a hurry though so you better go find somebody else to mooch off of," he scoffs, brushing off his pants as he gets up. He's never been fantastic with animals. Better to avoid interaction as much as possible.

Yusuke begins his sprint to the shop once more. It's never been _just_ a shop, after all, and who knows what types of clients and requests he'll get? They pay better than the food stand!

It's not much different than his detective days, although he actually gets paid something other than the lint from Koenma's pocket. Someone comes to him with a request to get something from Demon World, or even maybe a demon needs some soft-not-so-soft reminders that integration into Human World is not the time to pretend they're an S-Class demon lord to drive up rent. Thankfully those encounters are few and far between. He had to cart those pitifully weak, blubbering individuals back to Enki to receive punishment. The payout for playing the responsible, upstanding officer was usually enough to let him waive payment from the poor swindled humans who hired him.

But that doesn't happen often. What happens most often, while technically a _good _thing when considering friendly integration of the two worlds, annoys Yusuke with how benign it is. Rough-and-tumble men, and once a ten-year-old girl, and even one of Kuwabara's old friends from middle school all found him. Money ready. All asking for autographs from the demonnesses taking Japan by storm. Recently he's been hearing that they're gaining a large audience internationally. Any day now he expects some weirdo foreigner to come rolling up. He'll charge extra for those people, just because.

As for getting the autographs, that at least was simple. Ruka, Koto, and Juri all think he's both responsible for their rocketing into fame and their link to yet unnamed studly demon warriors they have crushes on. He'll never get entangled in that dangerous web. He's got his girlfriend, loves her more than anything, and that's that.

"Huh?"

Yusuke, having entered his stand, pauses from turning on the stovetops when he catches sight of a figure turning the corner from the main road. He groans, hurriedly finishing off the knot on his apron and leaning forward over the counter with a scowl.

"Following me hoping for a handout was a bad move!"

The dog stops and stares. After its ear twitches, its tail begins to wag and its tongue lolls out of its mouth in a grin.

"I mean it, dog, I've got a business to run and a mutt like you isn't gonna help me out," Yusuke chides. It's ineffective, as all the dog does is sit to scratch at its ear.

"Goddammit," Yusuke mutters, lowering his head to smack on the counter. He has health regulations to abide by!

The dog doesn't get any closer, wandering to an alleyway. It keeps within eyesight, curling up on some cardboard left out for pickup tomorrow.

Still miffed at the audacity of the stray, he gets back to work opening up for business. He has a couple of regulars who are likely to arrive expecting him to be feckless as usual, and ruining that could cost him down the road. He allows maybe a few quips and harmless jokes, but Keiko taught him well on how to handle people. The only time he shows any of his rowdiness is when he gets the special jobs. With those customers, it's anything goes as far as he's concerned.

Every few minutes his eyes are drawn back to the dog's. It keeps staring. Sometimes its gaze wanders, or it gets distracted by something, but it always comes back. Yusuke himself ends up distracted with work but as time goes on and lulls occur, the dog crops into his attention.

He settles his head onto his hand, leaning his cheek into it with a bored expression, thinking, "_I guess it's better than being by myself. Should probably call an animal rescue or something." _

At the end of a long shift that goes into the late hours of the night, he leaves out some of the unused meat that would otherwise go to waste. Strolling to the ever-patient dog, he drops the food at its feet.

"Don't expect this again, it's just a thanks for the company all day. I don't work tomorrow so figure something out."

The dog easily chomps down on its meal, tail sliding over the dirt. Yusuke walks away with a yawn, ending with a smile on his face.

As far as he can tell (which he _can_, thank you very much!) the dog doesn't follow him home. Once in his apartment, he sets aside the cash made that day and texts Keiko to tell her he got home safely. He never expects anything back when it's this late, it just makes her feel better to know.

He gazes around, sluggishly heading back to his bedroom.

"_Gotta admit, it's a little lonely coming back to this all the time." _

He goes to bed thinking about an important, complex step forward in his life that will take all his brain power and feelings to eke out.

He wonders briefly if there's anyone who can help him.

* * *

**Thanks to all who read! If you follow/favorite, awesome! Reviews are nice, but I'm not gonna breathe fire at anyone for them. **

**Til Next Time,**

**-A**


	10. The DD of G's GGS

**Hey all! I'm here. Stea**

**dy goes the rhyme scheme. It's snow**

**ing on Mt. Fuji.**

**I admittedly really love this chapter personally. Please enjoy.**

* * *

**-The Demolition Death of Grandma's Great Game Shack-**

It's happening.

He insulted her cooking _again _and it didn't actually taste bad today! TOTALLY UNCALLED FOR!

Then he actually approached her while she was practicing her martial arts forms and, while making sure to call her incompetent, fixed her stance. He wasn't gentle about it either, she swears up and down that he actually meant to break her ankle while scooting her foot forward a few centimeters! **_cEnTImEteRs._**

Then, he asks to spar? Like, ASKS to SPAR as if it's the worst idea IN THE WORLD but takes a stance across from her anyway as if he somehow gleaned that she desired such a thing.

What the hell does he think he's doing?!

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

If he's surprised by her outburst, he barely shows it by the teeniest widening of his eyes. He stays on guard. Alexa draws her face back in her best miffed, exasperated frown. The one that, whenever she uses it, made her old American friends say it was a total mood. She releases some of her energy, muscles relaxing into the beat provided by her old friend Vivaldi and inspired by the summery air around them.

"Hn. I figured you must be getting bored with your insane amount of stretches. It's time to show what you've got, maybe you'll find that to become a fighter you have to actually _fight _someone," he replies. Ready for anything. She contemplates his answer, her face changing to show her indignance.

"I am too a fighter, maybe not with the same experience as everyone else but I have–"

He doesn't allow her to finish, as he rolls his eyes and darts forward. He doesn't bother using his trademark speed with her. She yelps, throwing herself to the left to dodge his punch. She breaks her fall with a roll and hops right back up. The music changes, blasting from her form. It's the same she's been using while attempting the new technique that always fails, but she doesn't start the motions for it. Instead, she gathers her spirit energy into her right index and middle fingers that are now stuck together due to the growing power within them. _This _she can do. This is simple now, Genkai made sure she had this one down pat.

Some dodging, a couple of fists flinging but never connecting, and kicks pass as Alexa waits for the correct opening to fire. Hiei isn't making it simple, and in fact looks just as bored as ever.

"_Not going to take me seriously? I'm not surprised but fuck you!" _she thinks, intent bordering on murder despite it being an otherwise breezy spar. Were she in normal training, she'd be pleased with the fluidity of her movements.

Finally, Hiei jumps back and stands a couple yards away. No sweat, no injuries, no worries. His hands are in his pockets and his face is bland. Alexa tries not to pout. Some of his punches and kicks had landed and they were gonna bruise big time.

"I don't know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't so pitiful. Mukuro is making a mistake," he drawls, all ease and arrogance. Alexa doesn't bother with a verbal reply.

The music suddenly drops to tense silence as she jabs her hand up, forming a gun aimed straight for him. The air pressure changes. The bass hit drops as she fires, the music pounding again as she yells "SPIRIT GUN!"

The shot blasts on true, the sound of its tumbling roar different from Yusuke's as it heads for him at practically point-blank range for an attack this large.

He's Hiei, though. Any astonishment at seeing her version of the infamous move is neatly tucked away as he flits to the side, out of the blast's way. It carries on, a lumbering freight train that doesn't nearly match Yusuke's sophisticated and pristine mag-lev.

He's on his way to filtering aloud both his disappointment and snide jabs at her pride when something invisible catches him off guard in the abdomen, but not a punch or kick from Alexa. He staggers backward a few steps at the force and even the hint of pain. He looks around for what it could be with narrow eyes, only to see Alexa gawping between him and then the direction of her spirit gun blast.

"**FUCK!" **

Her panicked screech gets him to stare after her attack as well, just in time to watch it completely demolish a large steel building. While Alexa sinks to her knees with her hands clenching her hair at her scalp in panic, Hiei watches as the force moves on beyond the building into the forest.

The initial energy blast burns and breaks through trees like what he's used to seeing. But something follows at a slower pace, not as powerful, but widening the destruction zone to damage trees that remained standing or untouched around the attack's path. The energy fizzles out before long, as Alexa hasn't gotten to the level of making it travel for miles.

"_That's what hit me," _he realizes, placing a distracted hand on his stomach. "_The force of the second invisible wave hit me the same as Yusuke's untrained Spirit Gun." _He grunts and looks back to Alexa, who is still frazzled and muttering.

"Shit man, that was the arcade, I wasn't thinking!"

Alexa exhales after a final colorful demonstration of her knowledge on curse words and stands sluggishly. She knew well that she could cause that amount of destruction, given that Genkai never let her use the Spirit Gun around any buildings just in case. She knew this, and still lost her temper, forgot where she was, and fired away.

"It's apparent that the universe is playing a prank on everyone around you."

Alexa turns wary, tired eyes to her opponent, breathing deeply as her music tweedles by their ears passively.

"A prank, you say?"

Hiei crosses his arms, nose turned up. The effect is lost on Alexa because of her few inches on him in height.

"You've been given such interesting power, and it's squandered on an idiot. Yusuke is a fool but he was destined to fight from the beginning. You were never destined for anything at all," he states, and although he enunciates his words as final, he stays to watch her reaction.

The rage rises. It falls. Music swells and energy follows, only to ebb and pull back. She shows no strain at doing so.

"I don't think anyone is destined for anything, if that's the road you want to tread, which seems a bit out of character for what I know of you. You want me to make good use of what I got so bad, help me."

Silence as they don't look away from each other, his expression full of his usual disdain and hers full of challenge. He smirks.

"Idiot, I already started to."

What both of them don't see as they swiftly move into the woods to safely train is a certain large blue spirit beast soaring out and away at a rather frantic pace.

… …

Alexa flops face down onto the living room sofa and immediately regrets it. Everything aches. The realization that Hiei was right and the lack of real training made her soft and squishy again fully came to her after the second straight time she was kicked up into the branches of a towering fir tree. Nothing is broken, at least. Somehow she avoided that sack of suck. Even though she doesn't have the levels of healing and recovery that Yusuke does, she'll be better after a couple days and a good bath.

She grumbles. Doing anything comforting means moving, which means pain, which means going slow. She's starving, and also absolutely sure that Hiei has no intention of helping her on that front… Wherever he went, anyway.

She makes to get up from her position with a whimper. Her legs give out as she attempts to stand and she drops flat to the floor with a squeal. After a few moments of internally hating her life decisions, she manages to get up and stumble to the kitchen. Looking wearily in the fridge and through the cupboards, she groans.

"Hardly anything here, I need to make a grocery run again. If I'da known I was getting the shit kicked out of me today I'd've gone yesterday," she says, turning and gingerly walking through the halls. A grocery run means finding and asking Puu for a ride down to the nearest city. The closest small town wouldn't serve her needs, and the alternative is hours of travel and money spent. With Puu, she could get her food and get back within a few hours. Alexa's mind is currently on maybe just getting a pizza or something to go and making the real grocery run the next day.

She gets to the large room set aside for Yusuke's large and adorable spirit beast, only to find the shoji doors ripped from their rails, several blue feathers, and the absence of one, (1), blue bird creature. Alexa blinks rapidly taking in the sight before her face sets in panic.

"I cannot fracking BELIEVE THIS!"

Puu is gone, and while he's supposedly Yusuke's responsibility in the first place, she's still the one who takes care of him!

"It seems that your Spirit Gun did more than demolish that building. You've frightened away Yusuke's spirit beast," Hiei says from somewhere behind her. She doesn't jump, being both too preoccupied with the predicament and hurt to respond accordingly.

"Very well observed, you damned Sherlock! What'll I do? I can't just let him go, he could get hurt and Genkai said that'd suck for Yusuke if it happens," she continues, ignoring the grunt she gets as a response.

"_I can't tail him, he flies! Where would he go? Does he have some secret cave up here? At the very least I should tell Yusuke," _she ponders, until her mind latches onto the idea of tracking Puu. She turns and glances meekly at Hiei. His stance and expression are set in his normal boredom, none the worse for wear after their sparring. He finally notices her intent staring and narrows his eyes.

"What?"

"You can track energies with your eye-thingy, right?" she asks hopefully, making herself sound as pleading as possible. His frown deepens.

"I'm not wasting my time with it. If anything, it's Yusuke's problem, not ours. We have work to do before you face Mukuro, or anyone else for that matter," he replies sharply, arms crossing to enforce his refusal. Her eye twitches in annoyance.

"Don't be a stooge, it's called being a good person. He's your friend, isn't he?" she snaps, placing her hands on her hips but keeping her music calm. His grip on his arms tighten.

"Friends are a crutch for the weak."

She leers as she snarls, "You would say that."

There's a mild standoff in which Alexa feels her joints creak due to being tired. She relents, disappointed that she once again has to lose some sort of competition with him.

"Well, we have to go down to get food anyway. Might as well go to Sarayashiki and tell Yusuke about it," she says, already thinking about what all she needed to take.

"'We' aren't going anywhere. If something really is wrong, we'll be notified. Until then we stay here," he says, his voice steely and bossy and infuriating. She shakes her head.

"Nope. You can stay if you want, but I'm not letting this one go. I've been hating waiting for our first mission, and we need food. I dunno if you've noticed, but I don't exactly have a green thumb and the garden is basically a useless jungle now."

Hiei had noticed what was meant to be a food garden out back overgrown with weeds, and while she didn't know any better, he had to follow wherever she went. If somehow she was attacked and killed, it'd be on his head for letting it happen. Not to mention, after the hours of fighting, he felt it would be a waste of his time letting her die after deciding to help her train.

"Hn. Be ready in ten minutes. I'll carry you there faster, we're not getting on one of those filthy trains," he says, making his relent as grumpy as possible. Alexa's nose wrinkles.

"Ew, no we can just take the train, you'll probably drop me down a gorge or something."

The universe surrounding them takes a collective disappointed sigh as the two enter a standoff once more. Somewhere, somehow, Kuwabara feels it as a thrill up his back and sneezes, scaring the fur off his cat.

Alexa tightly purses her lips at the thought of her compromise.

"We could both just run there," she suggests. Hiei snorts.

"I think we'd rather get there before the week gets out."

Alexa tips her head back in a long, hoarse groan.

"Jesus Christ, _fine! _But if you even _think _about any funny business I'll find a way to shave your head," she threatens, knowing deep down that her threats have no merit. Hiei's too strong and fast for her, the very first and last time she'll ever have a leg up on him was tricking him into telling her about his mind reading powers. Hiei, of course, knows this too.

"As if I'd try anything so troublesome. Now go get your things. If you take too long we're not going."

Alexa, at her wise old age of twenty-four, utterly HATES his tone of voice. She swallows her clapback at being treated like a child and huffs off to stuff a duffle bag with weekend essentials. Within her time limit, and after a hefty, cathartic scream into her pillow, she returns dead-eyed to Hiei.

"Alright, how we doing this?" she asks, watching for any unsavory movements.

"Get on my back, I assure you that your weight will be nothing to me," he answers, and somehow Alexa feels insulted by his words. She's never been one to care about her weight in the first place but did he really have to push that button anyway?

"Ugh, you're despicable. You gonna kneel down or do you want me to leap on like a spider monkey?"

Every word that came from her mouth makes her feel more and more awkward, but she sticks to it anyway. Hiei's expression deadpans but he turns and kneels anyway.

"_I haven't had a piggy-back ride since I was like six. Hoo boy," _she thinks, face heating up involuntarily as his undeniably well-muscled back and arms shift under her to keep hold. She stares up at the sky, angry at herself for the reaction.

"_He wears this cloak so it's hard to remember he's… Ugh, I'd have this reaction to ANY guy like this, get a grip!"_

A voice inside her that resembles her friend Kelly snickers.

"_You think he's hot, doncha?" _

Hiei stands as she begrudgingly secures herself, arms atop his shoulders, hands clasping together around front.

"_NO! He's just muscley, he's got the personality of a pile of dirty laundry!"_

"Whatever your problem is, I suggest you focus on holding on. I don't really care, but if you fall off, that's on you," Hiei warns. Before she can retort he dashes forward at speeds she never thought possible for anyone, human or demon. Wind roars in her ears and her surroundings blur, and she feels his fingers clutching her legs despite what he said about not caring about her falling off. Having a straight-up fear of roller coasters, Alexa swallows her shrieks and her stomach, praying to anyone listening that her waning strength holds out for the duration of the ordeal.

Blurs of trees turn into blurs of fields, and then blurs of buildings, then blurs of taller buildings that don't pass by, but pass _under. _The leaps Hiei takes obviously don't concern him, but Alexa is well aware that gravity tends to catch up at some point. She squeezes her hold, to which he grunts but doesn't berate. The sooner he gets to Yusuke's the sooner it will be over.

"_I'll give her credit for keeping quiet," _he muses, having already felt relief when she bypassed his expectations of her being either annoying or fussy or shrieking in terror.

In fact, their sparring match earlier wasn't… well, it wasn't _un_interesting. Her Spirit Gun is much different than even Genkai's, and he has the feeling that the old psychic couldn't help Alexa realize her true power given that Yusuke inherited the main bulk of her own power. At the very least, she puts up a bit of a fight, even if it's nowhere near what level she needs to attain to face him… or Mukuro.

He scrunches his nose at the thought. What's going to happen when he sees her again, which will undoubtedly be when Alexa faces her? His decision to help the human woman is a bit of a mystery even to him, but the idea of anyone, ESPECIALLY Mukuro, thinking that he willingly hangs around a weakling, becoming weak through association, bothers him. It's a sour note in his ear.

But whether or not Alexa gets better, survives her missions or not, is up to her. He doesn't care. Hiei sets down on the ground in front of Yusuke's apartment building and immediately releases his hold on her admittedly well-toned legs. His thoughts are interrupted by her squeal as she falls, her arms still clasped around him and now pulling back on his neck. Because he didn't expect it, he growls at the surprise pressure and claws her away. Her hold breaks easily and she thumps to the ground.

"Dude, a little warning next time! Geez," she chastises, clambering up with a wince or two. He rounds on her.

"We obviously arrived at our destination, and you repay me by keeping hold–"

"Heeeey, guys, what's all the racket? Didn't expect visitors, let alone you two."

Yusuke walks up to them looking rather exhausted himself, although he's smirking at them in the same teasing manner that Alexa sees anytime he's around. He's wearing a grease-stained shirt and faded black slacks that are also stained with food. An apron is balled up under his arm along with a metal cashbox.

Hiei remains silent, leaving Alexa to explain their appearance. The air grows thick in her lungs.

"Uh, well, it's a bit of a long story, we'd better let you go inside after your rough day at the office," she starts, uneasy at the idea of Yusuke being actually mad at her. He raises an eyebrow at her but shrugs.

"Yeah okay. Now I know it's not a mission, at least. Come on, and no remarks about the mess, I'm a busy guy these days," he warns, jerking his head over his shoulder toward the stairs and trudging over. Alexa feels herself internally die at the daunting thought of stairs. And she has a _bag _too. She'll be damned if she mentions desiring to take the elevator instead though, because Hiei would likely make some jibe about it later.

Instead, as they head up the stairs (Hiei dashing up past them both because he's an ass), Alexa stares hard at Yusuke's back trying to think of a way to tell him that his spirit beast is missing, making him vulnerable.

As they exit the stairwell and walk down the hall where Hiei stands in front of the door looking as if he's waited there for hours, Alexa holds her head high despite her tiring body. She's an adult, and Yusuke isn't a cruel person. She's gonna tell him about Puu and then an easy search will commence. She can handle it!

Yusuke lets them in his apartment and throws his apron on a kitchen counter while setting his cashbox on a small coffee table in front of a sofa. He sits, gesturing for her to do the same. She figures he already knows Hiei wouldn't lower himself to the indignity of sharing buttspace with her.

"Alright, spill. You haven't killed each other, so what's the issue?"

Alexa sucks in a breath and wrenches the edge of her shirt between her hands.

"Um, it's about Puu. I've been taking care of him, and I ask him to help me get grocery shopping done by flying me to a city and back, which is cheaper and takes less time. I always ask, sometimes he says no and I respect it. Well we," she points rather rudely at Hiei, "have been training and I noticed we were out of groceries and the garden is like, a no-go and I went to ask Puu for mercy and he's gone. Flew off somewhere, tore through the doors in his room, no idea why," she explains rapidly, holding Yusuke's gaze as best as she can. Once she's finished, he glances to Hiei but keeps most of his attention on her.

"Okay… You know Hiei can track energies right? If you're that worried about him," he states, sitting back when Alexa snaps a heated glare at Hiei, who stands across the room. He fires one back, Yusuke noting the telltale signs of Hiei feeling a bit of regret for his actions. He continues to log in his mind that Alexa can't tell that Hiei feels it, either.

"I suggested that, but our regional eyemaster decided that it wasn't important. We compromised by coming here as soon as possible. I figured _I_ would at least help you search if you needed," she says, crossing her arms and wincing at the action. Yusuke sighs, muttering something about children and attitude adjustments. Alexa turns her leer to him, to which he shakes his head, hands up in defense.

"Don't start on me, you're tired and hungry. Makes anyone a grouch. If Puu doesn't appear somewhere close by morning, I'll be worried. He's a big fella, strong as me. He can handle whatever," Yusuke yawns, not showing the concern he truly feels. No use in making Alexa hysterical.

Said woman slumps in her seat.

"Well, I guess I could've messaged you, but we need to eat too. Guess we'll get out of your hair til morning. Text me if he shows up here," she demands, slowly getting up and dragging her feet and now one-ton duffle bag to the exit.

"Y'know, if Hiei carried you all the way down here, I'm sure he wouldn't mind carrying you to wherever you're going now, given your recent ability to… compromise," Yusuke replies cheekily, nabbing the opportunity to comment while it's there. He avoids mentioning the letter from Genkai: that's meant for his New Year's visit, not this random drop in. Hiei snarls and leaves the apartment, wrenching the door open and slamming it shut behind him. Alexa gives him a withered look.

"Thanks, I already have to deal with him every day. I don't see how you're friends with him," she comments, and Yusuke (for once) doesn't miss the hint that she'd like an explanation. He grins.

"He's an interesting guy, and I beat him in a fight back when we were both weak as all hell. I know you've prolly heard some stories, maybe you should look into spirit world's account of my detective days. I thought I heard Koenma talking about it awhile back after officially firing me. Could help you understand better than I could ever explain," he suggests, waving a hand off as she opens his door.

"Yeah, we'll see if I can remember. See ya."

He grunts shortly in wonder over relations between his two friends. He's already got a betting pool going, without any utterance to his old team yet. He has a feeling Kurama wouldn't approve, and Kuwabara would ruin it somehow. And of course Hiei can't know. So far all the money is coming from his demon world pals. Should his plan work, Hokushin's bet alone will fund Keiko's college expenses for a full year...

"Y'know, Botan would prolly be great at this sort of thing if she could actually lie effectively," he mutters, laughing slightly at his scheme. It's getting good now. His mind wanders to Puu.

"_I think I'd know if he was in any real distress, and I don't feel anything. Prolly just got bored and went for a vacation." _

With that simple explanation in mind, Yusuke rises from his seat and trundles back to his bedroom. Somewhere in the distance, a dog howls as he collapses with a grateful sigh into his bed and into slumber.

* * *

**If... If somehow you forgot about the entire arcade building Genkai has, that I have made Alexa destroy, please reintroduce yourself to the Rando arc. Whadda lady, that Genkai.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading! Drop a review if you like (especially if you enjoyed my opening haiku that was totally spur of the moment genius on my part!), or if I missed anything in the revise/edit process. **

**Til Next Time,**

**-A**


	11. Timely Hamilton Reference

**I'm here! This chapter is named because um, while yes I love the musical, I used to be a music major and one of my old college friends did a review of it as if he had any authority on the matter with a piddly degree from the podunk uni we went to and shit dude his analysis made it obvious he missed a bunch of memos on what musical theater is in the first place, much less what rap/hip-hop is as a genre (oooh someone never studied hard on their Music in America course!), and what do writers do but channel their emotions into their art?**

**Jk, I'm just goofing. It makes sense for an American her age, a former music major, to enjoy musicals (including the mad raging hit Hamilton.)**

**Also I'm part of a YYH page and dear god there was a vote for an evolved name for Puu and the top candidate was "MAZOPUU" AND I AM _TICKLED._**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**-If You're Gonna Make A Timely Hamilton Reference, Don't Be A Wuss About It-**

Yukimura Keiko is a giant nerd according to her boyfriend, but she takes it as a compliment. He only comes to her with any of his mental conundrums now, after all. She's been busy readying herself for the best universities for her intended teaching career, grateful that Yusuke understands and cheers for her. She smiles in her sleep, snuggling in closer in her blankets at the thought of Yusuke's last encouragement for her, which had included chocolate and cuddles. He'll never admit he enjoys it, but she doesn't mind. He's grown up enough for her to let it slide.

A tap comes at the window. Keiko groans and rolls over. The tap comes again, followed by a cry that makes her shoot up in panic.

"Puu?!"

Indeed, there is her boyfriend's spirit beast floating outside her window, looking quite ecstatic that she's getting up and leaving the house to go meet him outside. He lands near the door, joined shortly by the person he's come to see. He cranes his head down to her with a joyful squeak, enjoying the hug around his beak and scratches he earns.

"I don't understand Puu, what are you doing here, and so late? Is Yusuke in trouble?"

Puu draws back and fluffs out, going spherical in shape. Keiko giggles despite the situation, knowing that the action is his answer that Yusuke is fine.

"Well, while I don't mind seeing you it is late and we need sleep. Did something happen up at the temple?"

Floof out again. Keiko puffs air out of her cheeks in exasperation.

"So you just came to see me… to see me?"

A happy chirp erupts from his mouth, the very same sound that became his name. He nudges her for more pets, receiving them as Keiko thoughtfully stares at the pavement.

"Puu, I'm always happy to see you, but you should only come here when you're with Yusuke, okay?" she lectures sternly. Puu turns watery eyes on her before they clear up, staring past her. He stands tall now, gazing at something behind her. Keiko turns while a shiver spills down her back.

What she sees is a dog. It stares at them both, alert but unafraid. It's an obvious stray, with all the dirt in its thick coat. She's never known of many stray dogs in their area before, but this one keeps its distance.

"It's okay Puu, it's just a dog. He won't hurt us," she says calmly. As if hearing and desiring to reassure her, the dog wags its tail slightly and trots off, rounding the corner out of sight. Keiko sighs, digging her phone from her pocket.

"I'm going to call Yusuke, okay? You can stand guard if it makes you feel better."

Puu sneezes and keeps his wings at the ready, watching for anything threatening. The dog doesn't return, but he keeps his gaze in that direction.

… … …

Alexa shifts grumpily, her tailbone refusing to get comfortable again. For hours she's been here because she actually _didn't _have anywhere to go after leaving Yusuke's except for a vending machine for a sandwich and water.

She found Hiei at the base of the apartment, secretly thankful that he hadn't abandoned her after whatever Yusuke was really teasing him about. They'd bickered over their next move because that's how they be, and finally decided on raiding a vending machine. Meaning, in reality, Alexa got frustrated and stomped off to one without him. To her credit, she brought him back something too.

After that, with utter hunger fended off, both calmed considerably. With having to stay around until morning, there was no sense in going back up the mountains. Kelly went back to the States two months before, so she had no one to stay with nearby. Hiei didn't put forth any suggestions. As it was getting late, he snapped at her that they should just find a park and sleep in a tree. She'd gaped at him but admitted defeat. It was a tree or nothing.

And that's where she's at now. Sore ass, sore everything else. With a grunt she opens her eyes and lets them adjust to what little dim light there was from park lights. There isn't much to see. The lack of distraction makes her hurts hurt more and her music pop up quietly to fill some space.

"Can't sleep can you? Too used to a nice bed, you should break yourself of it," Hiei comments from somewhere above her, voice almost casual. It would be, anyway, if Alexa thought he was capable of it. She glares up at no particular point, not knowing which branch he's on.

"I slept on a cave floor and with a bunch of snakes for months. Ever think that maybe I'm rightfully sore after you kicked me into a tree twice?"

He laughs shortly, and it almost makes her smile.

"You have a lot worse ahead of you. Tell me: Why did you do it," he demands, more than he asks. Alexa scrunches her face.

"Did what? Let you beat me senseless?"

She can't see him but his eye roll is loud and clear.

"Decide to train. You were at every disadvantage, and you seemed the type to get your powers turned off so you could go back to some mundane human existence," he clarifies, managing to not sound too prickish. Alexa shrugs.

"I didn't want a mundane human existence."

Hiei hums thoughtfully, the first such sound she's ever heard from him. It makes her ponder what he might be thinking, but she has no plans on elaborating if he asks.

He doesn't. It remains silent between them.

"**TALK SHIT GET HIT!"**

Alexa nearly falls from the tree at the message tone turned to full volume. She shakily goes for her phone in her pocket while Hiei asks her what the hell happened. Due to being tired and jumpscared, she responds by dropping her phone from her fingers and squeaking an expletive. She wearily gets ready to jump down and check the damage, only to be stopped by her phone being shoved under her nose. She follows it up the length of Hiei's arm to stare quizzically at his face.

"_Holy shit, that was scary fast," _she thinks, a bit stunned.

"You're a serious pain. Take this as apology for kicking you into the tree the second time," he says, smiling wickedly at her dumbfounded speechlessness. He doesn't need to read her mind to know she's both appreciative and awed. She tears the phone from him so forcefully that she flings it backward, and back down.

Hiei doesn't move.

Or at least, she hadn't _thought _she saw him move, until he holds out her phone again. He's still pleased with himself and her reaction to his speed.

Disliking his smugness, she remains calm and reels her arm back to throw, only to have her wrist caught. His face has turned annoyed now, to which she smiles.

"Don't push it," he growls. She snickers.

"I have a song for that." She lets loose "Push It" by Salt-n-Pepa, stopping after "push it real good." She sticks her tongue out at him playfully, gleeful at winning their weird competition.

"Just see what the alert was all about," he prods, and she hums in a sing-song voice once more before unlocking her phone.

"It's from Yusuke. He says to go to Keiko's. Do you know where that is?"

Hiei nods, and the two jump gracefully from the tree. Alexa follows him at her fastest sprint, knowing it's sluggish compared to what he's capable of. She'll never admit it, but it _was _really impressive what he did.

And really, why would he apologize at all?

"_Or maybe it was a joke, but that means he has a sense of humor and I've already proven that false. Guess Yusuke might have a point."_

Hiei is mildly relieved that Alexa is at least fast enough for them to arrive within fifteen minutes. The Yukimura storefront is all closed up and dark, but the distinctive form of Puu can be seen around the corner where the entrance to the domestic portion of the building is. Yusuke and Keiko stand with Puu towering over them protectively, looking alert.

"That was fast. Guess the search is done, he came to see Keiko," Yusuke says, though there's an unspoken "but" in his tone. Keiko smiles weakly at Alexa.

"Nice to see you again, though I wish it was at a more sociable time," she greets, and Alexa melodramatically shrugs to lighten the mood.

"And here I thought the late hours were perfectly civilized times to gallivant the cityscape," she drawls, giggling afterward with Keiko joining in.

"Right, well if you're done charming my girlfriend, there's something you gotta know," Yusuke interrupts. Keiko elbows him and his lips twitch up.

"Puu got surprised by something up at the temple, but when he got up in the air he sensed something bad in the city. He didn't really think any of us were in danger, but he came to check on Keiko just in case," he explains, turning serious. Keiko furrows her brows in confusion and worry.

"That's not what he told me."

"He didn't wanna worry you."

Keiko's expression goes deadpan, as she says "Ah, back to the good old days of lying for my protection, he's definitely still you."

Yusuke scratches the back of his head with nervous laughter.

"Can't help our nature, I guess. Whatever it was is gone from the area now, but he doesn't know what it was, human or demon."

Hiei and Alexa cross their arms at the same time, neither aware of it. Yusuke ups an eyebrow but doesn't comment.

"I would think he'd be able to read energies," Hiei remarks, while Alexa just stares mystified at Puu.

"I thought so too, but Puu's not a deity or anything like that," Yusuke defends. Hiei merely grunts in response. Alexa turns her gaze to Keiko, recognizing the exhaustion of a student.

"We should call it a night. Hiei and I can get back home, Puu can stay on the roof and keep watch over Keiko. I don't think we could convince him to leave with how pensive he is, he can just come back home when he's ready," she suggests, smiling weakly. Even if it means foraging for food in the morning, she wants her bath and a bed.

Yusuke shrugs, saying "Sounds good to me, as long as you're sure."

"Yusuke told me you came down here purely out of worry. I know it didn't turn out to be anything exciting, but thank you," Keiko says afterward, her words directed more to Alexa.

"It's not a problem. Not for _me _anyway. Go back in and get some sleep, I remember those far-off days of yore when I was a student," she replies wistfully, her lips twitching up at one side.

So the group parts after some standard goodbyes. Alexa and Hiei come to some unspoken decision to not leave for the temple yet, walking at a leisurely pace through the quiet city instead. She doesn't make it a secret that she's thinking hard on something. He's about to ask when she stops.

"We gotta head back, but we need to figure out a better food situation. Getting the garden back in shape will be a triumph of the human spirit of itself, but I have a better idea," she starts, a smile stretching on her face. The wicked tone of voice has Hiei's interest piqued. She continues at his nod. "Kurama is the plant master, right? I say we get a little payback for his B.S. in dumping us in the mountains. Whatchu think?"

* * *

Kurama bolts upright in a fwoosh of hair at the screech of his com-pod. Well, that and the simple, almost whispery telepathic message from Hiei telling him to get his ass to the temple. While frantically combing his hair back, he curses the sight of his digital alarm clock that reads three AM and grabs the communication device. Internally he thanks fate that he's moved out of his parent's and gotten his own apartment.

"_**FROM ALEXA: 'HELP.'" **_

Again, a vague message but if they're really in trouble…

Kurama grunts, briskly changing into a fighting outfit and bolting out of his bedroom window and into the very early morning.

By the time he streaks up the temple stairs, dawning is both happening in reality and metaphorically. There is no fighting, no signs of chaos, no beacons of energy. A quick scan of the grounds shows a demolished building, but the occupants of the temple are… wait.

"Wow, he _does_ run fast. I have to admit, I didn't think he'd get here so quick."

"Hn. For once he leaps before he thinks, how noble in our time of need."

Their presences bounce to life behind him. Kurama turns to face the two, wary of anything they might try and surprise him with. Hiei looks like… Hiei, actually. Alexa looks dead on her feet and also a hint of pleased. Too pleased. Almost manically pleased. She quirks her eyebrow and a short piano lick darts through the air. Kurama knows it's from a super famous musical, a really American one, what was it? Ironically he first heard its soundtrack when Alexa was first training to learn the Spirit Gun, with her repetitions of "not throwing away her shot." He'll likely think of it when doing something entirely different, and also there are more pressing things at the moment...

"Hiei," he starts, only to be interrupted with the piano lick again. Alexa grins, eyes wide in anticipation. His eyes dart between them.

"Alexa–" The piano lick again– "... What is this?"

Alexa howls in triumph, pumping a fist in the air and taking a lap around the courtyard. Even Hiei looks a bit lost on her actions so Kurama boils it down to her being eccentric again.

"We needed you up here as quickly as possible. You left in such a hurry before," Hiei elaborates, as vaguely as possible of course. Alexa returns from her victory lap, still beaming through her obvious regret for taking a jog.

"I had work, I told you. What do you need me for that warranted such a gross misuse of our communication system?"

The two conspirators glance quickly between each other, neither showing any unease despite the fact that he's glowering at them both.

"We're out of food and Puu flew the coop and'll be gone for awhile. We need YOU," Alexa points enthusiastically at his face, "to shape up the garden again with food. Given that you basically dumped us here so unceremoniously, it seemed like a good way for you to apologize. Hiei agreed. And don't wuss out on me, that Hamilton thingy was professional grade."

Kurama looks between the two in masked disbelief and even a bit of alarm, thinking, "_This was not anywhere near what I expected. What have I done." _

Resigned that perhaps he's doomed himself (and the world) to a truly heinous collusion by allowing Hiei and Alexa grounds to agree on something, he lessens his glare.

"If that's all, why couldn't it wait until morning? You're lucky I have the day off tomorrow."

Alexa rolls her eyes and puffs air out her mouth in about the juiciest fart noise he's ever heard from a woman.

"We're hungry _now, _and also vengeance. Right Hiei?"

She looks to him and he crosses his arms.

"Don't think this is some proof that we're meant to be some 'dream team,' it was merely to stop your complaining," he answers snidely. She stomps, mouth open in outrage and ready to argue. Kurama mentally sighs.

"_At the very least, it doesn't seem that any form of teamwork will be fully developed anytime soon."_

* * *

**If you dunno what part of the musical is referenced, it's the beginning of "We Know." Truly an underrated source of comedy.**

**Thanks for reading! Leave a review, follow favorite, whatever, I appreciate it all. **

**Til Next Time,**

**-A**


	12. Motivations Are Important Clarifications

**Welcome back! I really do love writing this story, it's been on my brain a lot. Hopefully that continues. **

**Without further delay, enjoy!**

* * *

**-Motivations Are Important Clarifications-**

Kurama begrudgingly has to give props to Alexa: She spared nothing in making him comfortable and let him sleep in before fixing up the garden. Granted, he's fairly certain that's because she wanted to sleep in herself.

Or rather…

He watches as she drags her feet after Hiei, back soaked in sweat and eyes dull. The bags under her eyes seem weight enough without her hunched shoulders adding to the effect. She catches him looking at her and motions toward Hiei while mouthing "Kill me."

Kurama shakes his head, shrugging and returning to the intense garden work. Hiei's motivations for making Alexa train with him are a complete mystery. He has some guesses, but none of them feel quite right enough to be concrete. She's going along with it as well as she can, which is a bit unusual as well. Is it a rivalry? Hiei's taking her more seriously than he did training Kuwabara for the Dark Tournament years ago, but Hiei's also more mature _("...Is that the word?") _than that time. It could also be completely possible that Hiei…

Kurama scrunches his eyebrows at the very idea, especially considering the last woman the fire demon was rumored to have relations with, thinking, "_There's no possible way. Hiei's just being enigmatic."_

With that conclusion settled, he smiles as a tomato plant returns to life under his hand.

"Yes, that's right, you won't be ignored again. I'll make sure they take care of all of you without exception," he murmurs, voice nearly akin to babytalk. No one would ever peg him as a terribly prideful person, but he'd absolutely NEVER allow any of his friends or teammates hear him talk to plants this way. But, it is the best way for them to grow healthily, after all…

Later, after detailing proper care for the now radiant, rejuvenated food garden, Alexa shirks training to help him gather anything that's ready to be harvested. He senses that she does so with another purpose in mind, as her hands go to the hem of her shirt when they are otherwise unoccupied.

After fifteen minutes of relative silence, she finally speaks up, glancing around.

"Can I ask you something about Hiei?"

Kurama breathes in deeply. Which question would it be? Why is he rude? What's his past? How is he so trusted?

"Go ahead."

Alexa takes another moment to gather her thoughts over the cabbages before continuing.

"Hiei… I mean, he isn't really the type to leave a string of broken hearts behind him, is he? But I'm kind of picking up that he's been dumped and I think I know who by," she states, glancing at him several times nervously. His eyebrows shoot to his hairline. This is nowhere near what he thought this conversation would be. He always knew that Alexa herself was touchy about her past romantic relationships, but none of the specifics, and he doesn't really know the specifics on Hiei's either.

"That's neither my business nor yours, I'm afraid. If the curiosity gets the best of you, you'll have to ask him," he replies easily. He smiles apologetically when she pouts in disappointment.

"And here I thought we were good enough pals that I could at least get a 'yes, Alexa, you social genius, you're right!' It's not like I'd go telling the tabloids about it," she grumbles, placing a cabbage head into a basket. Kurama sits back on his heels to pause from gathering fresh grapes from a trellis on the outskirts.

"It's not that I'm worried about that, really. But given that you and Hiei have entered a fragile sort of trust, I don't think this sort of talk would help any. Would you like it if he started asking me about _your _past relationships?"

The final cabbage to be harvested thuds to the ground.

"He didn't, did he?"

Kurama chuckles, putting his hands up to ease her worried expression.

"Of course not, do you think he cares?"

Alexa predictably scrunches her nose as her face goes red. She doesn't comment further, instead choosing to bashfully take up the cabbage and place it with its friends. Kurama can hear her muttering something under her breath but doesn't hone in on it like he could. He has a feeling it's a pop culture reference anyway.

"Sorry again about dragging you up here. It felt great in the moment but it could've caused a lot more problems. Sometimes my fully grown adult brain doesn't kick in like it should until after the fact," she admits, some minutes after. Kurama looks up, about to tell her that he's used to it. Then he sees the genuine satisfaction in her eyes, even through the exhaustion.

"But I've never gotten to be this much of me around other people before."

He swallows his words and smiles, nodding. He wonders what sort of upbringing Alexa had before coming to Japan to train, before awakening her powers and getting entangled in the true nightmare that she's walked into. He empathizes with it, of course. His human mother still has no clue about his demon origins, and never will. But Alexa is a normal human woman, from a normal human background. She didn't have _that _many problems growing up, did she?

"_Hmm… Some food for thought, I suppose," _he thinks, neatly filing away the topic for later perusal.

"Are you two done lazing around the bushes or can we get going yet?"

Hiei interrupts the sunny moment with his trademark storminess. Alexa immediately reflects this mood change, standing from her position and dusting her hands off with a small groan.

"This stuff is for all of us, so you should be down here working too, snicklefritz," she calls, looking around squinting because he's keeping the sun at his back as a blinder.

"Hiei, she does have a point. It would go faster with an extra pair of hands. You could at least carry inside what's already been done," Kurama adds, easily honing in on his friend atop the roof. There's a grunt, and a few moments of contemplation, before a look of triumph passes between Alexa and Kurama as Hiei takes up a bin of vegetables to haul it inside.

"Thanks. I'm so tired and sore, I could really use a scalding bath. You know there are hot springs on this property right? Genkai showed me once," Alexa starts, conversational as friends tend to be when attempting to fill the air. Her music is put away for the moment, and there's a subtle tightness that Kurama catches. He realizes he needs to tread carefully, as her grief is still strong.

"I wasn't aware, no. Perhaps a trip might do you some good."

She huffs a bit. Music finally wavers through the air, and Kurama sighs a bit in relief. It means she's comfortable. She seems to choose brass-heavy pieces a lot, there must be a reason…

"Not in the next few days, I'm so sore I don't think I could make the hike right now. Plus Hiei wouldn't want to take that break. I'm grateful that he's taking the time in keeping me in shape but man," she shakes her head, smiling ruefully, "he's hardcore. I'm glad I'm not a demon, no offense."

Kurama smiles fully, feeling gratified somewhere inside that at least someone gets that being demon isn't all it's cracked up to be.

"None taken. If you don't mind, might I ask why he's decided to train with you? It seems out of character," he says, knowing that Hiei is on his way back to pick up more.

Alexa swings back to sit on her butt with a satisfied grunt.

"Well, he had no interest until I told him that Mukuro challenged me to a fight the next time I'm in Demon World."

Hiei rounds the corner just in time for Kurama to conveniently swing his head around to address him.

"Hiei, are you **insane**?!"

* * *

"The House of…? Yes. I understand, that makes perfect sense. A respectable viewpoint given their lineage. I will send along the order to Mrs. Albrecht and the others. You're as beguiling as ever, Your Grace."

Tenrou walks from the large hall and sighs with relief. Today's meeting with the ultimate commander went well. Not that they didn't usually, but the day the barrier fell and alliances began between humans and demons stung a little. Especially after all their efforts for hundreds of years.

Tenrou scratches briefly at his ear, as they always bug him whenever he has to shift.

"_It's not like the humans really know any better anyway. Ah, we'll fix it for them. That's our duty," _he thinks, almost dreamily meandering back down the halls of the DEvision headquarters. Although spacious, it's not uncommon to run into someone else running an errand or strolling along. Tenrou greets them all pleasantly, especially the humans.

Tenrou has always liked humans. Adored them, actually. They gave him his name. He'd be another blip in the sky if it weren't for them, and for them to put so much thought and fantasy into him…! It's actually imaginative and kind of them. Without them, he's nothing, like many others of his kind.

So, he's part of DEvision.

He enters a broadcast communication room and nods to the receptionist at the desk, an otherworld denizen humanoid. They briefly set aside their typing work to crane their neck up at him. Tenrou folds his hands behind him, keeping his expression unassuming.

"How may I help you, Commander Tenrou?"

"Oh, if you could send out a notice to my colleagues that the demon house of Tsa Chi has agreed to ally itself with DEvision and will be covertly sending their members here henceforth, I would be immensely grateful," Tenrou explains, slow enough to allow for accuracy, but not enough to make the secretary feel stupid. As a seasoned leader, Tenrou knows the important distinctions and thin lines when it comes to things like that.

"Right," the humanoid finishes typing the message. They read it back to Tenrou, who confirms it.

"I'll send this off right away sir."

Tenrou nods in thanks, energetically enough that his ponytail flops over his shoulder.

"You are the true backbone of this organization, keep up the good work."

With that done, Tenrou exits and begins mentally preparing for his return to Human World. The Spirit Beast had been a glory to behold and a surprise to be sure, but made no true difference. He'd never hurt Yukimura Keiko. Such a genuinely good human being (even IF she's dating a half-demon scumbag) would never be a target of his, or even his organization's.

He sniffs, readying his energy and aligning himself with Sirius in the night sky as Japan begins to appear on the globe below.

"_Humans being strange is part of why I love them so much."_

... ... ...

Hiei and Kurama are off having a talk. A stern talk. Alexa didn't bother trying to stop them. A good thing too, because if she had, Kurama was going to trap her in a wad of dandelions and leave her anyway. Her wise decision to remain silent allowed her to grab a fruity snack and nab a nap in the shade.

The ghost that meanders the grounds and surrounding woods eagerly listens in on the two demons as they bicker.

"...I can't believe you didn't report this immediately, is this some sort of sick fantasy you have–"

"What the _hell _are you talking about, that's not–!" Hiei interjects hotly, getting too steamed to speak properly. Unfortunately his opponent is Kurama, someone who isn't moved by fear or temper. He swallows his rage and sorts his thoughts, ironing them out so he doesn't choke on them again, even if what Kurama just said boils inside. He grits his teeth.

"Mukuro challenges no one to a personal fight lightly. I want to know why."

Kurama doesn't say anything when Hiei doesn't say anything when Kurama doesn't say anything. The lengthy pause has the ghost so tense he almost feels alive again. That is, until Kurama has a visible epiphany that becomes verbal when he says something.

"That's what she was terrified of when I met back with her after our meeting with Enki, remember? I can't believe it was something like that all this time."

Hiei rolls his eyes.

"It is impressive, somewhat. Any rational human would make sure to never go back to Demon World again," he remarks, shoving his hands in his pockets as his anger fades. Kurama gives him a withered look.

"And yet here you are, helping her train up for the occasion. We both know she can't win. In fact, Alexa is probably certain _she _can't win, so what is the point?"

Kurama's question hangs in the air and Hiei's mouth draws into a hard line as he contemplates. No… Not contemplates. He doesn't contemplate because he knows the answer somewhat but it's too embarrassing to say. Again, unfortunately for him, it's Kurama. His oldest friend can't tell everything about him, but this is something that he _can_ read.

"Hiei, you know why she did, don't you? Or you have a guess," Kurama prods, maintaining a cool demeanor. He isn't so much curious as flabbergasted. How could this have slipped under his radar? Was he really so preoccupied with getting away from the dumpster fire that was Hiei and Alexa's interactions that he messed up this badly?

Hiei shifts, uncomfortable. Ghost man wishes he had some popcorn.

"Mukuro obviously isn't angry. Alexa would no longer exist if that were the case," he starts. Kurama nods slowly, wanting him to continue.

"But as far as I know, there is no other real reason she would want to fight her. Fighting is all Mukuro knows, and I'm sure she knows that Alexa was not born into that same lifestyle. What she hopes to glean is beyond me."

Kurama ignores the contempt in Hiei's voice, knowing that it boils down to whatever caused the two to split in the first place. If they were even together, which was a nebulous concept back when it was a "thing," anyway.

"Alexa does have a certain charm about her that sometimes draws parallels to Yusuke. It's garnered her friends with demons before, perhaps Mukuro saw it as well. You've said yourself that she's keen on fighting Yusuke," the fox puts forth, feeling a bit terrible for talking behind her back. Hiei snarls. A chill rolls down the Ghost's back even though he can't be killed twice.

"Then she should fight him! I'm only training with the woman so I can have something to do while we rot away on this mountain, Mukuro has nothing to do with it! For all the pomp this team was getting, there aren't many missions, are there?"

"I'm sure we'll be swamped sooner than you realize, Hiei. It takes time for things to come up, and to eke out the potentials of the team members. As a former second-in-command, I'm sure you're well versed in those matters," Kurama shoots back, raising a chastising eyebrow. Hiei grimaces as his eyes trail to the ground. The jibe, as intended, did not land lightly.

"You need to tell her."

Hiei's gaze shoots back up. Any hint of chastisement or teasing from his former statement is gone from his expression. He straightens his back in response, ready to be as himself as he always is.

"Tell her what?"

"That Mukuro isn't fighting her because she's done something wrong. We both know that at least. I think personally that as Alexa is a human, it poses a unique opportunity for any demon to test the waters of what humans can be like, and Mukuro wanted to see for herself who would dare join," he elaborates, shifting to start heading back to the temple. Hiei follows.

"Only Mukuro knows, Kurama. I'm only continuing to follow orders to stay by the woman's side."

Kurama hums. There are many things that Hiei's saying that aren't the complete truth, and very deflecting. But, as they are friends and it isn't very pertinent to anything important, he allows it to rest there. Sometimes denying the truth is just the same as telling it, after all.

They leave the Ghost Man feeling more entertained than ever, and wondering if he should perhaps stray closer to the living more often.

… …

Alexa waves as Kurama descends the stairs, happy as a clown and full as a rat after raiding a cabinet. He politely returns it before darting off into the trees, needing to catch the last train home. Hiei stands somewhere overhead in a nearby tree watching, mulling over the conversation he'd been forced into earlier.

Kurama, of course, settles easily into a train seat some time later. He made it. He can relax for a couple hours before switching trains and getting back home. In the meantime, he's going to send off a message to Enki. There's PLENTY of space up at that temple. Many members of the missions team will need to be in Human World to await missions, and where better to wait for them? Hiei and Alexa have already proven what EXCELLENT hosts they are, AND they have a thriving, expansive food garden, natural hot springs, AND they're BORED just waiting up there for something to happen!

Kurama smiles. A calculated, mirthless smile of a scorned man and vengeful spirit.

"I am forgiving. But I am not to be walked all over."

* * *

**Anyone have any guesses on what the cabbage-related pop culture reference is? Heehee. **

**Kurama is too often written as a stale piece of bread. He is not. Props to my Ghost Man. **

**Please review, or show this story some love however you feel! I respond to all reviews. I'll update regardless though, so if you're shy or lazy or some combo thereof (no worries, I've been there lol), I gotchu. Feedback just helps with morale and mistakes and editing and whatnot (I'm a college dropout, me dumb brain), y'know how it is. **

**Anywho. **

**Til Next Time,**

**-A**


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